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Global relief model
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Global relief model
A global relief model, sometimes also denoted as global topography model or composite model, combines digital elevation model (DEM) data over land with digital bathymetry model (DBM) data over water-covered areas (oceans, lakes) to describe Earth's relief. A relief model thus shows how Earth's surface would look like in the absence of water or ice masses.
The relief is represented by a set of heights (elevations or depths) that refer to some height reference surface, often the mean sea level or the geoid. Global relief models are used for a variety of applications including geovisualization, geologic, geomorphologic and geophysical analyses, gravity field modelling as well as geo-statistics.
Global relief models are always based on combinations of data sets from different remote sensing techniques. This is because there is no single remote sensing technique that would allow measurement of the relief both over dry and water-covered areas. Elevation data over land is often obtained from LIDAR or inSAR measurements, while bathymetry is acquired based on SONAR and altimetry. Global relief models may also contain elevations of the bedrock (sub-ice-topography) below the ice shields of Antarctica and Greenland. Ice sheet thickness, mostly measured through ice-penetrating RADAR, is subtracted from the ice surface heights to reveal the bedrock.
While digital elevation models describe Earth's land topography often with 1 to 3 arc-second resolution (e.g., from the SRTM or ASTER missions), the global bathymetry (e.g., SRTM30_PLUS) is known to a much lesser spatial resolution in the kilometre-range. The same holds true for models of the bedrock of Antarctica and Greenland. Therefore, global relief models are often constructed at 1 arc-minute resolution (corresponding to about 1.8 km postings). Some products such as the 30 and 15 arc-second resolution SRTM30_PLUS/ SRTM15_PLUS grids offer higher resolution to adequately represent SONAR depth measurements where available. Although grid cells are spaced at 15 or 30 arc-seconds, when SONAR measurements are unavailable, the resolution is much worse (~20-12 km) depending on factors such as water depth.
Data sets produced and released to the public include Earth2014, SRTM30_PLUS and ETOPO1.
The 2022 ETOPO version is the most recent global relief model with several scans at 1 arc-min, 30 arc-sec, and 15 arc-sec resolutions. The ETOPO Global Relief Model combines topographic, bathymetric, and shoreline data from regional and global sources to provide high-resolution representations of Earth's surface. It supports applications such as tsunami forecasting, ocean circulation modeling, and Earth visualization. The latest version, ETOPO 2022, is available in two formats: Ice Surface, depicting the top of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, and Bedrock, showing the underlying terrain.
The Earth2014 global relief model, developed at Curtin University (Western Australia) and TU Munich (Germany). Earth2014 provides sets of 1 arc-min resolution global grids (about 1.8 km postings) of Earth's relief in different representations based on the 2013 releases of bedrock and ice-sheet data over Antarctica (Bedmap2) and Greenland (Greenland Bedrock Topography), the 2013 SRTM_30PLUS bathymetry and 2008 SRTM V4.1 SRTM land topography.
Earth2014 provides five different layers of height data, including Earth's surface (lower interface of the atmosphere), topography and bathymetry of the oceans and major lakes, topography, bathymetry and bedrock, ice-sheet thicknesses and rock-equivalent topography. The Earth2014 global grids are provided as heights relative to the EGM96 mean sea level for the conventional relief model, and as planetary radii relative to the centre of Earth to show the shape of the Earth.
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Global relief model AI simulator
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Global relief model
A global relief model, sometimes also denoted as global topography model or composite model, combines digital elevation model (DEM) data over land with digital bathymetry model (DBM) data over water-covered areas (oceans, lakes) to describe Earth's relief. A relief model thus shows how Earth's surface would look like in the absence of water or ice masses.
The relief is represented by a set of heights (elevations or depths) that refer to some height reference surface, often the mean sea level or the geoid. Global relief models are used for a variety of applications including geovisualization, geologic, geomorphologic and geophysical analyses, gravity field modelling as well as geo-statistics.
Global relief models are always based on combinations of data sets from different remote sensing techniques. This is because there is no single remote sensing technique that would allow measurement of the relief both over dry and water-covered areas. Elevation data over land is often obtained from LIDAR or inSAR measurements, while bathymetry is acquired based on SONAR and altimetry. Global relief models may also contain elevations of the bedrock (sub-ice-topography) below the ice shields of Antarctica and Greenland. Ice sheet thickness, mostly measured through ice-penetrating RADAR, is subtracted from the ice surface heights to reveal the bedrock.
While digital elevation models describe Earth's land topography often with 1 to 3 arc-second resolution (e.g., from the SRTM or ASTER missions), the global bathymetry (e.g., SRTM30_PLUS) is known to a much lesser spatial resolution in the kilometre-range. The same holds true for models of the bedrock of Antarctica and Greenland. Therefore, global relief models are often constructed at 1 arc-minute resolution (corresponding to about 1.8 km postings). Some products such as the 30 and 15 arc-second resolution SRTM30_PLUS/ SRTM15_PLUS grids offer higher resolution to adequately represent SONAR depth measurements where available. Although grid cells are spaced at 15 or 30 arc-seconds, when SONAR measurements are unavailable, the resolution is much worse (~20-12 km) depending on factors such as water depth.
Data sets produced and released to the public include Earth2014, SRTM30_PLUS and ETOPO1.
The 2022 ETOPO version is the most recent global relief model with several scans at 1 arc-min, 30 arc-sec, and 15 arc-sec resolutions. The ETOPO Global Relief Model combines topographic, bathymetric, and shoreline data from regional and global sources to provide high-resolution representations of Earth's surface. It supports applications such as tsunami forecasting, ocean circulation modeling, and Earth visualization. The latest version, ETOPO 2022, is available in two formats: Ice Surface, depicting the top of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, and Bedrock, showing the underlying terrain.
The Earth2014 global relief model, developed at Curtin University (Western Australia) and TU Munich (Germany). Earth2014 provides sets of 1 arc-min resolution global grids (about 1.8 km postings) of Earth's relief in different representations based on the 2013 releases of bedrock and ice-sheet data over Antarctica (Bedmap2) and Greenland (Greenland Bedrock Topography), the 2013 SRTM_30PLUS bathymetry and 2008 SRTM V4.1 SRTM land topography.
Earth2014 provides five different layers of height data, including Earth's surface (lower interface of the atmosphere), topography and bathymetry of the oceans and major lakes, topography, bathymetry and bedrock, ice-sheet thicknesses and rock-equivalent topography. The Earth2014 global grids are provided as heights relative to the EGM96 mean sea level for the conventional relief model, and as planetary radii relative to the centre of Earth to show the shape of the Earth.
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