12-meter WorldDEM Product Availability Monthly Update - Apollo Mapping
Posted on June 3rd, 2014

12-meter WorldDEM Product Availability Monthly Update

We are pleased to announce that sales of the much anticipated WorldDEM produced by Airbus Defense and Space are under way! For the past three years, Airbus’ twin high-resolution radar satellites, TerraSar-X and TanDEM-X, have imaged the entire land surface of our planet multiple times to create the first ever global 12-meter (m) elevation model. The WorldDEM is ideal for all mapping projects requiring accurate elevation models including orthorectification, floodplain determination, mineral exploration and hydrocarbon development.

A comparison of 30-m SRTM and 12-m WorldDEMTM elevation data over Arkansas, USA.

WorldDEM Specifications

The key product specifications of Airbus’ WorldDEM are as follows:

  • Resolution: 12-m
  • Coverage: entire landmass of the Earth, ~150 million square kilometers (sq km)
  • Absolute Vertical Accuracy: 4-m Linear Error 90% (LE90)
  • Relative Vertical Accuracy: < 2-m LE90 (slopes ≤ 20%), < 4-m LE90 (slopes > 20%)
  • Absolute Horizontal Accuracy: < 10-m Circular Error 90% (CE90)
  • Vintage: all data collected within 3 years
  • Source: interferometry from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites TerraSAR-X & TanDEM-X
  • Minimum Order: 500 sq km per polygon
  • File Format: GeoTIFF
  • Projection: geographic WGS84 (EGM2008, vertical datum), meter vertical unit
  • Product Line Options:
    • WorldDEMcore – unedited digital surface model (DSM), includes spikes, wells and voids
    • WorldDEMTM – a DSM with removal of artifacts and water body flattening
    • WorldDEM DTM – artifacts and surface features removed, i.e. a digital terrain model (DTM)

WorldDEM Coverage and Pricing

WorldDEM data has a 500 sq km minimum order size with a 10-km width requirement. Prices for two of the product lines have been set:

  • WorldDEMcore – $10.80 per sq km
  • WorldDEMTM – $13.50 per sq km

Currently, there are portions of the United States, Canada and Australia that are ready for production. In the coming months, the rest of the world will be released. For the estimated release dates of regions not currently ready for production, please email the Apollo Mapping team at sales@apollomapping.com.

A coverage map of the one-degree cells that are currently ready for production. All of the regions on this map are either red (i.e. pre-production phase) or yellow (ready for production). Areas that are ready for production will take approximately four (WorldDEMcore) to eight weeks (WorldDEMTM) to deliver once an order is placed.

WorldDEM Samples

You can download three 12-m WorldDEMTM samples here:

For more information about 12-m WorldDEM data, please send us an email at sales@apollomapping.com.

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