Vertical Accuracy Assessment of SRTM Ver 4.1 and ASTER GDEM Ver 2 Using GPS Measurements in Central West of Tunisia

This paper focuses on the quality of the vertical accuracy of two Digital Elevation Models, corresponding to Kasserine region, central west Tunisia. The vertical accuracy assessment is based on 23 GPS ground control points belonging to the study area. We applied a statistic analysis approach and established 3 elevation profiles corresponding to GPS, ASTER and SRTM. The erected statistical analysis reveals that the Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) was 8.88 and 10.13 respectively for SRTM and ASTER DTMs. 2D elevation profiles constructed for GPS measurements, ASTER and SRTM, highlight that both DTMs underestimate the true elevation and that SRTM DTM is quite closer to the GPS elevation profile. Relying on this investigation, we think that both DTMs are significant for the vertical accuracy assessment and we urge that SRTM DTM might scheme the Kasserine area features better than ASTER DTM.

Vertical accuracy evaluation of freely available latest high-resolution(30 m)global digital elevation models over Cameroon(Central Africa)with GPS/leveling ground control points.

Digital Elevation Models(DEMs)contain topographic relief data that are vital for many geoscience applications.This study relies on the vertical accuracy of publicly available latest high-resolution(30 m)global DEMs over Cameroon.These models are(1)the ALOS World 3D-30 m(AW3D30),(2)the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission 1 Arc-Second CBand Global DEM(SRTM 1)and(3)the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Global DEM Version 2(ASTER GDEM 2).After matching their coordinate systems and datums,the horizontal positional accuracy evaluation was carried out and it shows that geolocation errors significantly influence the vertical accuracy of global DEMs.After this,the three models are compared among them,in order to access random and systematic effects in the elevation data each of them contains.Further,heights from 555 GPS/leveling points distributed all over Cameroon are compared to each DEM,for their vertical accuracy determination.Traditional and robust statistical measures,normality test,outlier detection and removal were used to describe the vertical quality of the DEMs.The test of the normality rejected the hypothesis of normal distribution for all tested global DEMs.Overall vertical accuracies obtained for the three models after georeferencing and gross error removal in terms of Root Mean Square(RMS)and Normalized Median Absolute Deviation(NMAD)are:AW3D30(13.06 m and 7.75 m),SRTM 1(13.25 m and 7.41 m)and ASTER GDEM 2(18.87 m and 13.30 m).Other accuracy measures(MED,68.3% quantile,95% quantile)supply some evidence of the good quality of AW3D30 over Cameroon.Further,the effect of land cover and slope on DEM vertical accuracy was also analyzed.All models have proved to be worse in the areas dominated by forests and shrubs areas.SRTM 1 and AW3D30 are more resilient to the effects of the scattering objects respectively in forests and cultivated areas.The dependency of DEMs accuracy on the terrain roughness is evident.In all slope intervals,AW3D30 is performing better than SRTM 1 and ASTER GDEM 2 over Cameroon.AW3D30 is more representative of the external topography over Cameroon in comparison with two others datasets and SRTM 1 can be a serious alternative to AW3D30 for a range of DEM applications in Cameroon.

Global DEMs vary from one to another:an evaluation of newly released Copernicus,NASA and AW3D30 DEM on selected terrains of China using ICESat-2 altimetry data

A good understanding of the quality of digital elevation model(DEM)is a perquisite for various applications.This study investigates the accuracy of three most recently released 1-arcsec global DEMs(GDEMs,Copernicus,NASA and AW3D30)in five selected terrains of China,using more than 240,000 high-quality ICESat-2(Ice,Cloud and land Elevation Satellite)ALT08 points.The results indicate the three GDEMs have similar overall vertical accuracy,with RMSE of 6.73(Copernicus),6.59(NASA)and 6.63 m(AW3D30).While the accuracy varies considerably over study areas and among GDEMs.The results show a clear correlation between the accuracy and terrain slopes,and some relationship between the accuracy and land covers.Our analysis reveals the land cover exerts a greater impact on the accuracy than that of the terrain slope for the study area.Visual inspections of terrain representation indicate Copernicus DEM exhibits the greatest detail of terrain,followed by AW3D30,and then by NASADEM.This study has demonstrated that ICESat-2 altimetry offers an important tool for DEM assessment.The findings provide a timely and comprehensive understanding of the quality of newly released GDEMs,which are informative for the selection of suitable DEMs,and for the improvement of GDEM in future studies.