Access to High-Resolution DEMs

Background

Digital elevation models (DEMs) provide a high-resolution depiction of the height of the land surface and are important to update in regions that change frequently. Volcanoes, geohazards, mining subsidence, and urban growth (plus more) all contribute to rapid changes in local topography. High-resolution DEMs have been requested in every Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG) assessment cycle because they provide fundamental topographic underpinning for the processes that each land monitoring agency tracks. 

In the 2020 assessment cycle, agencies expressed the need to track changes in topography over time, or dynamic topography. This activity, informed by the SNWG-2020 cycle, produces and distributes 2 m DEM strips at locations where WorldView collected stereo imagery. The data products will be made available to federal agencies as per the licensing agreement.

Status: Available Now

EarthDEM continues to be available through NASA's Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition (CSDA) program to U.S. government-funded partners. In addition, CSDA is actively assessing DEM products provided by commercial partners under the CSDA Indefinite Deliver/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. 

Characteristics

Societal Impact

The monitoring of dynamic topography allows for improved predictions and responses to hazardous events such as volcanic eruptions or land subsidence. It also provides greater oversight of growing anthropogenic impacts on topography, such as mining and urban growth, which may impact long-term land use and inform policy or infrastructure decisions.

Resources

For more information about accessing and using commercial data, visit the following resources:

• EarthDEM
• Arctic DEM and Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA) for polar data
• CSDA Program
• CSDA Satellite Data Explorer
• Commercial Datasets available via NASA's CSDA program
• Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition Program Activities