NASADEM: Global Slope and Curvation Data at 1 Arc Second

The dataset provides global slope and curvature data derived from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) launched on February 11, 2000. It was produced by NASA's Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) as part of the MEaSUREs program, incorporating improvements from ASTER, ICESat, and AW3D30 data. It covers land between 60° N and 56° S latitude, accounting for about 80% of Earth's landmass, and is distributed in 1-degree by 1-degree tiles.

Use Cases

• Modeling hydrological flow and watershed delineation based on slope and curvature layers.
• Analyzing terrain stability and landslide risk using profile and plan curvature data.
• Generating topographic maps and visualizations using the global 1 arc second elevation data.
• Improving geolocation accuracy for other remote sensing data using the updated water body dataset.

Strengths

• Derived from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), a near-global radar interferometry campaign.
• Covers approximately 80% of Earth's total landmass between 60° N and 56° S latitude.
• Incorporates improvements from multiple sources including ICESat lidar ground control points and ASTER GDEM.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC).

Collection Method

Derived from original SRTM telemetry data, reprocessed with ASTER GDEM, ICESat GLAS, and AW3D30 DEM data for void filling and geoid reference conversion.

Time Range

Based on SRTM data from the STS-99 mission launched February 11, 2000.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:52:14.938282; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global land coverage between 60° N and 56° S latitude.