On August 5, 2019, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NA...
On August 5, 2019, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) jointly announced the release of the ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model Version 3 (GDEM 003) and the ASTER Water Body Dataset (ASTWBD). The initial version of the ASTER GDEM, which was released in June 2009, was created from stereo-pair photos gathered by Terra's ASTER instrument. ASTER GDEM coverage ranges from 83 degrees north to 83 degrees south latitude, spanning 99 percent of the Earth's surface.
The upgraded GDEM V3 includes more stereo-pairs, which improves coverage and reduces the incidence of artefacts. The revised manufacturing algorithm improves spatial resolution as well as horizontal and vertical precision. The ASTER GDEM V3 uses the same GeoTIFF format and gridding and tile structure as the V1 and V2 versions, with 30-meter posts and 1 x 1 degree tiles.
Version 3 is a considerable upgrade over the previous version. Users should be aware, however, that the data contains abnormalities and artefacts that will make it ineffective for some applications. The data is supplied "as is," and neither NASA nor METI/Japan Space Systems (J-spacesystems) are liable for any damages incurred as a result of its usage.
The ASTER Water Body Dataset is a new worldwide product that is currently accessible (ASTWBD). All water bodies are classified as ocean, river, or lake in this raster product. A Water Body tile corresponds to each GDEM tile. NASA Earthdata and Japan Space Systems both have the GDEM and ASTWBD available for download.
According to an agreement between METI and NASA, anybody can use the ASTER product for free. See the Validation Report: ASTER GDEM V2 Validation Summary Report for additional details on the GDEM.
Source of data: Aster GDEM website
Tags: satellite, space, nasa, earth, science, astronomy, universe, planet, aster, DEM, Remote sensing, GIS, Maps,
