Detailed 3D elevation map of High Mountain Asia, from WorldView and GeoEye satellite cameras (8 m detail)

In plain English

What it measures. Detailed elevation maps showing the height of the land surface across the glacier and snow regions of High Mountain Asia, at a fine 8-meter level of detail.

How it's made. Stitched together from very-high-resolution images taken by commercial satellites, then converted into 3-D elevation mosaics.

How & where you'd use it. Useful for studying mountain glaciers, snow, and terrain in this region, including tracking how the landscape and ice change over time.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATION › DIGITAL ELEVATION/TERRAIN MODEL (DEM)

Coverage & cadence

Time span2002-01-28 → 2016-11-24
Measured byGEOEYE-1 (CAMERAS) · QUICKBIRD-2 (QUICKBIRD/BHRC-60) · WORLDVIEW-1 (CAMERAS) · WORLDVIEW-2 (CAMERAS) · WORLDVIEW-3 (CAMERAS)
Processing levelLevel 4
Spatial extent67, 26, 103, 46
FormatsPNG, GeoTIFF
StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time

Official description

This data set contains 8-meter Digital Elevation Model (DEM) mosaics of high mountain Asia glacier and snow regions generated from very-high-resolution (VHR) commercial satellite imagery.

Get the data

hma_dem8m_mos_access.py

import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="HMA_DEM8m_MOS",
    version="1",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from NSIDC_CPRD

Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.

What's measured

Coverage & cadence

What you can do with it

Get the data

Official links