Publisher: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Language: N/A
Published: 2009 - 2009

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan (METI) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have collaborated on a project to develop the ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model (ASTER GDEM), a 30m DEM which is acquired by a satellite-borne sensor "ASTER" to cover all the land on earth. EVC makes the ASTER GDEM data available worldwide, in a variety of formats and projections.

The ASTER GDEM covers land surfaces between 83degN and 83degS and is composed of over 22,000 1-by-1 degree tiles. Tiles that contain at least 0.01 percent land area are included. The ASTER GDEM is provided in geographic lat/long coordinates and a 1 arc-second (30 m) grid of elevation postings. The GDEM is referenced to the WGS84 datum. The GDEM is provided in standard DEM formats by EVC. The GDEM’s pre-production accuracy estimates were 20 meters at 95 percent confidence for vertical data, and 30 meters at 95 percent confidence for horizontal data.

While this is a quality and cost-effective DEM solution for many projects, EVC cannot guarantee its effectiveness or content. According to its publishers, this DEM contains some anomalies and artifacts which can affect accuracy.

For more details on the limitations of this dataset, as well as the ASTER sensor and the DEM methodology, please download the product information sheet.