Comments on: Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer Global Digital Elevation Model

Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer Global Digital Elevation Model

atmosphere — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:10:39 -0800

The most complete terrain map of the Earth's surface has been published. It covers 99% of the planet using ASTER satellite imagery. You can download the map and some cool images from NASA's page.

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:41:58 -0800

As far as I could tell, it costs money to download the actual data. Too bad. I was looking forward to making my own maps.

By: shakespeherian

shakespeherian — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:50:04 -0800

The missing 1% is anywhere Dick Cheney has been.

By: bigmusic

bigmusic — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:51:14 -0800

You can get the DEV model files for free, but the other sensor data is charged for - the prices are reasonable though actually if you think about the amount of data that you get.

By: zachxman

zachxman — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:54:13 -0800

it absolutely does not cost money to download the imagery, which can be obtained via the WIST of LPDAAC (per this PDF). Requires registration and a submitted form, but they'll set up an FTP folder for you.

By: bigmusic

bigmusic — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:03:41 -0800

That pdf just says that we can get the GDEM - "Global Digital Elevation Models" - and looking at the WIST page - there are three other data sets offered - sensor L1B which is the radiance level and sensor L1A and the primliminary L1A data. Any idea what the L1A data set is?

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:07:34 -0800

It covers 99% of the planet... Well, 99% of the visible landmass of the planet. What would be reeeeally cool is if they combined this with high-resolution imagery of the world's ocean floor.

By: bigmusic

bigmusic — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:08:27 -0800

Ok, so it looks like the L1A dataset is the actually unprocessed imagery. "The ASTER Level-1AE product contains reconstructed, unprocessed instrument digital data derived from the telemetry streams of the 3 telescopes at their respective ground resolutions: Visible Near Infrared (VNIR), 15 m, Shortwave Infrared (SWIR), 30 m, and Thermal Infrared (TIR), 90 m. There is no browse product provided for the expedited L1A data set." This is the dataset you want if you want to make pretty pictures guys.

By: sixswitch

sixswitch — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:09:04 -0800

The WIST of LPDAAC sounds like some seriously awful fantasy novel.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:15:40 -0800

Well, 99% of the visible landmass of the planet. What would be reeeeally cool is if they combined this with high-resolution imagery of the world's ocean floor. *gets haunted look in his eyes* No. No it would not. Trust me on this. Seriously.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:15:49 -0800

This is great. One of the the things Canadian governments get wrong is they insist on charging for GIS data.

By: FatherDagon

FatherDagon — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:34:17 -0800

No. No it would not. Trust me on this. Seriously. Aww, don't listen to that guy, the water's fine... there's nothing to worry about at all. Especially around the Pacific Islands and coasts of New England.

By: six-or-six-thirty

six-or-six-thirty — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:48:50 -0800

The WIST of LPDAAC sounds like some seriously awful fantasy novel. Any idea what the L1A data set is? Welcome to the seedy underworld of satellite/aerial Earth imagery. It's a bit like the back room of a seedy strip club: getting access is pretty easy but you can never be sure what you're going to get, and you don't get to see it (in its actual resolution and quality) until you've already paid. (I kid. But with the recent lack of funding and subsequent shutdowns of certain key offices, with the merging of their responsibilities with existing ones, a lot of the tools I had finally gotten familiar with are elsewhere, and quite often the contact emails get you nowhere. It is a mystifying and frustrating world, particularly when you go through all of the steps necessary to get access and realize, sadly, that the resolution of whatever niche of the world you need is largely worthless for any actual data processing.)

By: jquinby

jquinby — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:05:17 -0800

I can't see my house? Bah.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:03:36 -0800

How does this new Digital Elevation Map compare to what's in Google Earth now? Has Google already been using the data? Will it?

By: LoopyG

LoopyG — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:06:55 -0800

Awwww, 30 meter posts. I was hoping for a better free DEM than the NED.

By: unSane

unSane — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:48:57 -0800

One of the the things Canadian governments get wrong is they insist on charging for GIS data. Huh? http://geobase.ca/geobase/en/index.html http://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca/geogratis/en/index.html http://www.geographynetwork.ca/website/obm/viewer.htm I've never paid for Canadian GIS data

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:50:49 -0800

How do I attach this to Google Earth?

By: bigmusic

bigmusic — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:55:44 -0800

six-or-six-thirty : Luckly all I ever want is vector data - it might be a bitch to convert or figure out what kind of projection that the data is in, but I always know if what I am buying is supposed to be useful. Dealing with counties that want to charge for want to charge for everything annoys me though.

By: @troy

@troy — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:04:02 -0800

slashdotted

By: Pastabagel

Pastabagel — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:26:25 -0800

Pfft. NASA and its satellites. "Oh, look at me I launched a rocket into space to take a picture of the ground, I'm so cooooool." Big deal. The ground's down here, Einstein. You know what would impress me? If NASA hired a few hundred guys with cameras to just walk the earth, taking pictures of the ground as they went, a la Google Street View.

By: unSane

unSane — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:23:58 -0800

It's the SPACE administration, not the friggin' GROUND Administration.

By: Severian

Severian — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:40:34 -0800

"How do I attach this to Google Earth? posted by Pope Guilty at 11:50 AM on June 30" Second!

By: paddbear

paddbear — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:52:50 -0800

Where's my house?