Global Digital Elevation Models

Last Update: 16 April 2026

The following is a reference list of GDEMs:

CFI  SupportNameSpatial ResolutionCoverageRemarks
ACE-23 arcseconds
(~90 m)
Global– Available through NASA SEDAC
– Produced by ESA/ESRIN
– Composed of binary image tiles
– Tiles of 15° latitude by 15° longitude
– The data is 32-bit floating point
– Null value is -32768
– WGS84 for sea surface
– EGM96 for land surface
– Sources: SRTM, SRTM 30, ACE-1, GLOBE, MSS
ACE-29 arcseconds
(~270 m)
ACE-230 arcseconds
(~1 km)
ACE-25 arcminutes
(~10 km)
ASTER GDEM V11 arcseconds
(~30 m)
Near Global
(between 83N and 83S)
– Produced by NASA/JPL and METI/JSS
– GeoTIFF
– Acknowledged to be experimental/research grade
– Released 2009
ASTER GDEM V21 arcseconds
(~30 m)
Near Global
(between 83N and 83S)
– Produced by NASA (USA) and METI (Japan)
– GeoTIFF
– Improved horizontal and vertical accuracy wrt v1
– Improved water body coverage and detection
– Released 2011
ASTER
GDEM V3
1 arcseconds
(~30 m)
Near Global
(between 83N and 83S)
– Produced by NASA (USA) and METI (Japan)
– GeoTIFF
– Improved horizontal and vertical accuracy wrt v2
– Improved water body coverage and detection
– Released 2019
GETASSE 3.030 arcseconds
(~1 km)
Global– Produced by ESA/ESRIN
– Composite of SRTM 30, ACE-1 and Mean Sea Surface
– Reference ellipsoid: WGS84
– Released 2012
 GLOBE30 arcseconds
(~1 km)
Global– Produced by NOAA
– Released 1999 (pre-SRTM)
 GMTED20107.5 arcseconds
(~250 meters)
Near Global
(land areas from 84N to 56S;
from 84°N to 90°S for
several other products)
– Produced by USGS and NGA
– GeoTIFF
– Reference: EGM96
– Released 2010
 GMTED201015 arcseconds
(~500 m)
 GMTED201030 arcseconds
(~1 km)
 SRTM3 arcseconds
(~90 m)
Near Global
(between 60N and 60S)
– Produced by NASA/JPL and NIMA
– Contains voids
– Released 2003
 SRTM 3030 arcseconds
(~1 km)
Near Global
(between 60N and 60S)
– Produced by NASA/JPL and NIMA
– SRTM averaged to 1km resolution
– Released 2008.
 TanDEM-X 90m3 arcseconds
(~90 m)
Global– Produced by DLR, EADS Astrium and Infoterra
– GeoTIFF format
– Varying longitudinal pixel-spacing in function of latitude
– Reference ellipsoid: WGS84 (realization G1150)
– Land mass only coverage; sea areas marked as void

– Note: 1 arcsecond and 0.4 arcseconds versions of TanDEM-X are available as commercial products. These versions are not supported by EOCFI.

 Copernicus DEM10 m
30 m
90 m
Global– Produced by Astrium (link)
– Available in 3 resolutions:
* 10 m (EEA area)
* 30 and 90 m (Global)
– 30m and 90m versions are free and open
– Based on TanDEM-X and other data
– Coordinate Reference System:
* Horizontal WGS84-G1150 (EPSG 4326)
* Vertical EGM2008 (EPSG 3855)

– Releases: 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022

 Copernicus DEM – EOCFI SW Generic format30 m
90 m
GlobalBased on Copernicus DEM converted to format compatible with EOCFI SW (Generic DEM format). Land mass only coverage; sea areas marked.

– Based on Copernicus DEM Release 2022_1

Availability on request:

cfi@eopp.esa.int