Validation of the absolute height accuracy of TanDEM-X DEM for moderate terrain

Author

Wessel, B. ; Gruber, A. ; Huber, M. ; Breunig, M. ; Wagenbrenner, S. ; Wendleder, A. ; Roth, A.

Author_Institution

German Aerosp. Center (DLR), Wessling, Germany

fYear

2014

fDate

13-18 July 2014

Firstpage

3394

Lastpage

3397

Abstract

In September 2013 the production of TanDEM-X digital elevation model (DEM) started. As the data acquisition for difficult terrain lasted until April 2014, final DEM production started for flat to moderate terrain regions where two final coverages surfice. This paper focuses on a first validation of moderate terrain to prove the absolute height accuracy. In a detailed comparison three DEM tiles from different continents are chosen to validate the TanDEM-X DEM by computing differences to GPS tracks, ICESat validation points, and SRTM. On a global scale all TanDEM-X DEMs produced so far are compared with ICESat and GPS tracks. Both validations presented here for the first time indicate that the absolute height error for moderate terrain for TanDEM-X is below 2m and therefore much better than the specified 10m/LE90.

Keywords

Global Positioning System; data acquisition; digital elevation models; remote sensing; terrain mapping; AD 2013 09; AD 2014 04; GPS tracks; ICESat validation points; TanDEM-X digital elevation model; absolute height accuracy; data acquisition; final coverages surfice; height accuracy; height error; moderate terrain validation; Accuracy; Australia; Calibration; Global Positioning System; Kinematics; Production; Standards; GPS; ICESat; TanDEM-X DEM; absolute height error; accuracy; validation;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 2014 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Quebec City, QC

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.2014.6947209

Filename

6947209