Free global DEMs

Free Global or Quasi_Global DEMs

Free Global DEM	Spacing	Primary Source	Producer	Vertical Datum	Precision	Grid storage (Pixel-Is)	Longitudinal spacing	Acquired	Characteristics
SRTM (v3)	1", 3"	C band radar	NASA	Orthometric EGM96	Integer	Point	Constant	2000 (11 days)	Does not cover high latitudes. Several editions, some of which may be PixelIsArea. Instantaneous snapshot of topography
ASTER GDEM (v3)	1"	Stereo NIR imagery	NASA / METI	Orthometric EGM96	Integer	Point	Constant	2000-2013	Coverage extends closer to the poles than SRTM.
ALOS World 3D AW3D30 v3.2	1"	Stereo pan imagery	JAXA	Orthometric EGM96	Integer	Area	Variable	2006-2011
NASDADEM	1"	Reprocessed C band radar	NASA	Orthometric EGM96	Integer or floating point	Point	Constant	2000 (11 days)	Two beta versions, with and without hole filling. Complete reprocessing of SRTM. Final version in HGT format
Copernicus DEM GLO30 and GLO90	1", 3"	X band radar, Edited commercial WorldDEM	ESA/Airbus	Orthometric EGM2008	Floating point	Point	Variable	2010-2015
Tandem_X	3"	X band radar	DLR	Ellipsoidal WGS84	Floating point	Point	Variable	2010-2015	Derived from much higer resolution data which is only available commercially or by application for research.
MERIT	3"	Radar + Stereo pan imagery	Univ. Tokyo	Orthometric EGM96	Floating point	Area	Constant	2000-2013	Combines ASTER and SRTM. 5 degree tiles.

Notes:

All are WGS84 horizontal datum
All use the default TIFF orientation (code 274=1), with the first points in the file in the NW corner. The DTED format starts with the SW corner.
All name tiles for the SE corner (USGS NED/3DEP names for the NW corner)
Except for the HGT formats for SRTM and NASADEM, in MICRODEM all will need GDAL because of particular choices in the Geotiff format.

Other 1" DEMs you might consider:

"USGS 1 arc second DEM" (https://portal.opentopography.org/raster?opentopoID=OTNED.012021.4269.2 ) which is a terrible name because it includes data for Mexico and Canada
DTMs (reprocessing of one or more of the DEMs above; same concept as MERIT)
- Hengl, T., Leal Parente, L., Krizan, J., & Bonannella, C. (2020). Continental Europe Digital Terrain Model at 30 m resolution based on GEDI, ICESat-2, AW3D, GLO-30, EUDEM, MERIT DEM and background layers (v0.3) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4724549
  - Integer resolution, in decimeters. This will not work in areas with elevations above 3200 m
  - EGM2008, using the 5 arc degree correction surface
  - EPSG 3035 (LAEA)
  - Terrain derivatives https://zenodo.org/record/4495449#.YgUhvOrMLAQ
- FABDEM (Forest And Buildings removed Copernicus DEM):
  - Data source, version 2: https://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/s5hqmjcdj8yo2ibzi9b4ew3sn
  - Journal Paper: Hawker, Laurence and Uhe, Peter and Paulo, Luntadila and Sosa, Jeison and Savage, James and Sampson, Christopher and Neal, Jeffrey, 2022,A 30m global map of elevation with forests and buildings removed, Environmental Research Letters, 17 024016. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac4d4f
  - The DEM is listed as "pixel-is-area", but with a half pixel offset to match the Copernicus "pixel-is-point"
  - The DEM is everywhere 1" longitude spacing
  - https://samapriya.github.io/awesome-gee-community-datasets/projects/fabdem/
- EDTM
  - https://medium.com/nerd-for-tech/an-ensemble-digital-terrain-model-of-the-world-at-30-m-spatial-resolution-edtm30-b4fcff38164c
  - Ho, Y.-F., Hengl, T., Parente, L., (2023). Ensemble Digital Terrain Model (EDTM) of the world (Version 1.1) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7634679

Directions for several of these DEMs from Open Topography

Free Global DEM	Journal or conference paper. "Best" is top of the list	Data set home page or product description	Download location	Metadata files	Notes
SRTM (v3)	Farr, T.G., Rosen, P.A., Caro, E., Crippen, R., Duren, R., Hensley, S., Kobrick, M., Paller, M., Rodriguez, E., Roth, L., Seal, D., Shaffer, S., Shimada, J., Umland, J., Werner, M., Oskin, M., Burbank, D., and Alsdorf, D. (2007). The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Reviews of Geophysics 45. https://doi.org/10.1029/2005RG000183	https://www.usgs.gov/centers/eros/science/usgs-eros-archive-digital-elevation-shuttle-radar-topography-mission-srtm-1-arc?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects	https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/	None	https://portal.opentopography.org/datasetMetadata?otCollectionID=OT.042013.4326.1 Do we want to link to OpenTopography, given that I think they do resampling?
ASTER GDEM (v3)	Abrams, M., Crippen, R., Fujisada, H. ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) and ASTER Global Water Body Dataset (ASTWBD). Remote Sens. 2020, 12, 1156; doi:10.3390/rs12071156 Abrams, M., Bailey, B., Tsu, H., and Hato, M. (2010). The ASTER Global DEM. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 76, 344-348. T. Tachikawa, M. Hato, M. Kaku and A. Iwasaki, "Characteristics of ASTER GDEM version 2," 2011 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2011, pp. 3657-3660, doi: 10.1109/IGARSS.2011.6050017.	https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/astgtmv003/	https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/	.num grid with number of scenes used, and the source of fill data
ALOS World 3D AW3D30 v 3.2	Tadono, T., Nagai, H., Ishida, H., Oda, F., Naito, S., Minakawa, K., and Iwamoto, H. (2016). Generation of the 30 M-Mesh Global Digital Surface Model by ALOS PRISM. ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences XLI-B4, 157-162. doi: 10.5194/isprsarchives-XLI-B4-157-2016 Tadono, T., Takaku,J., Tsutsui, K., F. Oda, and Nagai, N., 2015. "Status of ALOS World 3D (AW3D) global DSM generation. Proceeding 2015 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 3822-3825, doi:10.1109/IGARSS.2015.7326657 Tadono, T., Ishida, H., Oda, F., Naito, S., Minakawa, K., Iwamoto, H., 2014. Precise global DEM generation by ALOS PRISM. ISPRS Ann. Photogramm., Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci. II-4, 71–76. https://www.isprs-ann-photogramm-remote-sens-spatial-inf-sci.net/II-4/71/2014/ Takaku, J., Tadono, T., Tsutsui, K., 2014. Generation of high resolution global DSM from ALOS PRISM. ISPRS — Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote. Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci. XL-4, 243–248. https://www.int-arch-photogramm-remote-sens-spatial-inf-sci.net/XL-4/243/2014/	https://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/en/aw3d/index_e.htm	https://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/en/aw3d30/index.htm	.msk: mask for cloud, snow, sea, and indicates source if fill data .stk--number of DSM scenes used
NASDADEM	Crippen, R., Buckley, S., Agram, P., Belz, E., Gurrola, E., Hensley, S., Kobrick, M., Lavalle, M., Martin, J., Neumann, M., Nguyen, Q., Rosen, P., Shimada, J., Simard, M., and Tung, W. (2016). NASADEM Global Elevation Model: Methods and Progress. Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci. XLI-B4, 125-128. doi: 10.5194/isprs-archives-XLI-B4-125-2016	https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/nasadem_hgtv001/ https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/nasadem_shhpv001/	https://search.earthdata.nasa.gov/search?q=C1546314043-LPDAAC_ECS	.num Source grid .swb
Copernicus DEM GLO30, GLO90	Strobl, P. (2020). The new Copernicus digital elevation model. GSICS Quarterly, 14, 1, 17–18. https://elib.dlr.de/135371/1/GSICSquarterly_noaa_24758_DS1.pdf	https://spacedata.copernicus.eu/documents/20126/0/GEO1988-CopernicusDEM-SPE-002_ProductHandbook_I1.00.pdf/082dd479-f908-bf42-51bf-4c0053129f7c?t=1586526993604	https://finder.creodias.eu/	4 auxilliary grids	https://portal.opentopography.org/datasetMetadata?otCollectionID=OT.032021.4326.1 Do we want to link to OpenTopography, given that they do resampling?
Tandem_X	Rizzoli, P., Martone, M., Gonzalez, C., Wecklich, C., Borla Tridon, D., Brautigam, B., Bachmann, M., Schulze, D., Fritz, T., Huber, M., Wessel, B., Krieger, G., Zink, M., and Moreira, A., 2017. "Generation and performance assessment of the global TanDEM-X digital elevation model". ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Vol 132, pp. 119-139. Zink, M., Bachmann, M., Brautigam, B., Fritz, T., Hajnsek, I., Moreira, A., Wessel, B., and Krieger, G. (2014). TanDEM-X: The New Global DEM Takes Shape. Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine, IEEE 2, 8-23. doi: 10.1109/MGRS.2014.2318895	https://geoservice.dlr.de/web/dataguide/tdm90/#introduction	https://geoservice.dlr.de/web/dataguide/tdm90/#access	Substantial
MERIT	Yamazaki, D., D. Ikeshima, R. Tawatari, T. Yamaguchi, F. O'Loughlin, J. C. Neal, C. C. Sampson, S. Kanae, and P. D. Bates, 2017. "A high-accuracy map of global terrain elevations". Geophys. Res. Lett., 44, 5844-5853, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL072874	http://hydro.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~yamadai/MERIT_DEM/	http://hydro.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~yamadai/MERIT_DEM/	None (?)

OpenTopography (Directions) now has:

Higher resolution commercial alternatives.

EU 25 m LAEA DEM:

BigTIFF (tiles are 6 GB in a format MICRODEM can read, created by GDAL)
Covers EU. Tiles (1000 x 1000 km) are supplied in the full geographic extent, but no data for adjacent countries (e.g. Morocco)
https://land.copernicus.eu/imagery-in-situ/eu-dem/eu-dem-v1.1
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Last revision 3/3/2022