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Description

The Terra Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) Version 3 (ASTGTM) provides a global digital elevation model (DEM) of land areas on Earth at a spatial resolution of 1 arc second (approximately 30 meter horizontal posting at the equator).

The development of the ASTER GDEM data products is a collaborative effort between National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI). The ASTER GDEM data products are created by the Sensor Information Laboratory Corporation (SILC) in Tokyo.

The ASTER GDEM Version 3 data product was created from the automated processing of the entire ASTER Level 1A archive of scenes acquired between March 1, 2000, and November 30, 2013. Stereo correlation was used to produce over one million individual scene based ASTER DEMs, to which cloud masking was applied. All cloud screened DEMs and non-cloud screened DEMs were stacked. Residual bad values and outliers were removed. In areas with limited data stacking, several existing reference DEMs were used to supplement ASTER data to correct for residual anomalies. Selected data were averaged to create final pixel values before partitioning the data into 1 degree latitude by 1 degree longitude tiles with a one pixel overlap. To correct elevation values of water body surfaces, the ASTER Global Water Bodies Database (ASTWBD) Version 1 data product was also generated.

The geographic coverage of the ASTER GDEM extends from 83° North to 83° South. Each tile is distributed in both a Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG) and NetCDF4 format through NASA Earthdata Search. Data are projected on the 1984 World Geodetic System (WGS84)/1996 Earth Gravitational Model (EGM96) geoid. Each of the 22,912 tiles in the collection contain at least 0.01% land area.

Provided in the ASTER GDEM product are layers for DEM and number of scenes (NUM). The NUM layer indicates the number of scenes that were processed for each pixel and the source of the data.

While the ASTER GDEM Version 3 data products offer substantial improvements over Version 2, users are advised that the products still may contain anomalies and artifacts that will reduce its usability for certain applications.

Known Issues

  • ASTER GDEM Version 3 tiles overlap by one pixel to the north, south, east, and west of the tile perimeter. In most cases the overlapping edge pixels have identical pixel values, but it is possible that in some instances values will differ.
  • ASTER GDEM Version 3 is considered to be void free except for Greenland and Antarctica.
  • Users are reminded that because there are known inaccuracies and artifacts in the dataset, to use the product with awareness of these limitations. The data are provided "as is" and neither NASA nor METI/Earth Resources Satellite Data Analysis Center (ERSDAC) will be responsible for any damages resulting from use of the data.

Version Description

The following changes and improvements were implemented for the ASTER GDEM Version 3 data product: (1) Expansion of temporal coverage to increase cloud free input scenes from 1.5 million to 1.88 million scenes, (2) Separation of rivers from lakes in the water body processing, and (3) Decrease in minimum water body detection size from 1 square kilometer to 0.2 square kilometers.

Product Summary

Platforms
Terra
Instruments
ASTER
Spatial Extent

N: 82 S: -83 E: 180 W: -180

Spatial Resolution
30 Meters x 30 Meters
Location
GLOBAL LAND
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
GEODETIC
Temporal Extent
2000-03-01 to 2013-11-30
Temporal Resolution
14 Year
Data Partner
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) ,
ASTER, JET PROPULSION LABORATORY, NASA (NASA/JPL/ASTER)
Concept ID
C1711961296-LPCLOUD
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
22912
Processing Level
3
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Terrain Elevation ,
Digital Elevation/Terrain Model (DEM) ,
Topographical Relief Maps

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003 [Data set]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003 Date Accessed: 2026-02-16

File Naming Convention

ASTGTMV003_N10W001_dem.tif

The file name begins with the Product Short Name and Version (ASTGTMV003), followed by the latitude and longitude of the lower-left corner pixel (N10W001), Variable (dem) and Data Format (tif).

Documents

Variables

The table below lists the variables contained within a single granule for this dataset. Variables often contain observed or derived geophysical measurements collected from a variety of sources, including remote sensing instruments on satellite and airborne platforms, field campaigns, in situ measurements, and model outputs. The terms variable, parameter, scientific data set, layer, and band have been used across NASA’s Earth science disciplines; however, variable is the designated nomenclature in NASA’s Common Metadata Repository (CMR). Variable metadata attributes such as Name, Description, Units, Data Type, Fill Value, Valid Range, and Scale Factor allow users to efficiently process and analyze the data. The full range of attributes may not be applicable to all variables. Additional information on variable attributes is typically available in the data, user guide, and/or other product documentation.

For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.

Name Description Units Data Type Fill Value Valid Range Scale Factor
DEM Digital Elevation Model Meters int16 -9999 -500 to 9000 N/A
NUM Number of scenes Number int16 N/A 0 to 250 N/A
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