Evaluation of TanDEM-X DEMs on selected Brazilian sites: comparison with SRTM, ASTER GDEM and ALOS AW3D30

TL;DR

This study compares TanDEM-X DEMs with SRTM, ASTER GDEM, and ALOS AW3D30 over Brazilian sites, revealing TanDEM-X's finer resolution and identifying issues in other DEMs through difference analysis.

Contribution

First assessment of TanDEM-X DEMs in Brazil, highlighting their resolution advantages and methodological issues in existing DEMs using comprehensive comparison and difference analysis.

Findings

TanDEM-X has finer spatial resolution than SRTM and ASTER GDEM.

DEM difference maps reveal production issues like mast oscillations and scene mismatches.

Systematic elevation differences are linked to resampling processes in steep slopes.

Abstract

A first assessment of the TanDEM-X DEMs over Brazilian territory is presented through a comparison with SRTM, ASTER GDEM and ALOS AW3D30 DEMs in seven study areas with distinct geomorphological contexts, vegetation coverage and land use. Visual analysis and elevation histograms point to a finer effective spatial resolution of TanDEM-X compared to SRTM and ASTER GDEM. In areas of open vegetation, TanDEM-X lower elevations indicate a better penetration of the radar signal. DEMs of differences (DoDs) allowed the identification of issues inherent to the production methods of the analyzed DEMs, such as mast oscillations in SRTM data and mismatch between adjacent scenes in ASTER GDEM and ALOS AW3D30. A systematic difference in elevations between TanDEM-X 12m, TanDEM-X 30m and SRTM was observed in the steep slopes of the coastal ranges, related to the moving-window process used to resample the 12m data to a 30m pixel size. Due its simplicity, it is strongly recommended to produce a DoD with SRTM before using ASTER GDEM or ALOS AW3D30 in any analysis, to evaluate if the area of interest is affected by these problems. The DoDs also highlighted changes in land use in the time span between the acquisition of SRTM (2000) and TanDEM-X (2013) data, whether by natural causes or by human interference in the environment.