A new quality assessment report from NASA’s Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition (CSDA) program evaluates data from the Polar Geospatial Center’s (PGC) EarthDEM product. The results of the evaluation help inform NASA program management and the user community about the quality of commercial Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) for use in NASA science.
NASA 商业卫星数据采集 (CSDA) 计划的新质量评估报告评估了极地地理空间中心 (PGC) EarthDEM 产品的数据。评估结果有助于向 NASA 项目管理层和用户社区通报 NASA 科学中使用的商业数字高程模型 (DEM) 的质量。
Issued August 8, 2026, the CSDA Polar Geospatial Center EarthDEM Quality Assessment Report was conducted by NASA Digital Elevation Model (DEM) subject matter experts (SMEs) enlisted to evaluate the horizontal and vertical accuracy of two PGC EarthDEM 1 (i.e., Digital Elevation Model) products: the center’s “Mosaic Tile” and “Strip” Digital Surface Models (DSMs).
2026 年 8 月 8 日发布的 CSDA 极地地理空间中心 EarthDEM 质量评估报告由 NASA 数字高程模型 (DEM) 主题专家 (SME) 进行，旨在评估两个 PGC EarthDEM 1（即数字高程模型）产品的水平和垂直精度：该中心的“马赛克瓷砖”和“条带”数字表面模型 (DSM)。
To assess the vertical and horizontal accuracy of the EarthDEM Strip DSM and Mosaic Tile products over a variety of surface characteristics, the SMEs compared them to airborne lidar data samples from across the United States and Senegal. They found the horizontal accuracy of the EarthDEM products (Strip DSM: 0.5-meter (m) Root Mean Square Error Horizontal (RMSEH); Mosaic Tile: 0.3 m RMSEH) agreed with the specifications provided by the PGC and graded them “Excellent.” The vertical accuracy results of the EarthDEM Strip DSM (5.6 m Root Mean Square Error Vertical (RMSEV)) and the Mosaic Tile (4.9 m RMSEV) products varied by land cover type, with all land cover types exceeding the specification provided by the PGC (0.5 m RMSEV). Strip DSM vertical accuracy was found to vary from 4.6-6.8 m RMSEV depending on the cloud cover metadata field generated by the PGC. Given this variation, the vertical accuracy compliance for the EarthDEM products was graded as “Basic.”
为了评估 EarthDEM Strip DSM 和 Mosaic Tile 产品在各种表面特征上的垂直和水平精度，SME 将它们与来自美国和塞内加尔各地的机载激光雷达数据样本进行了比较。他们发现 EarthDEM 产品的水平精度（条带 DSM：0.5 米 (m) 水平均方根误差 (RMSEH)；马赛克瓷砖：0.3 m RMSEH）与 PGC 提供的规格一致，并将其评为“优秀”。 EarthDEM Strip DSM（5.6 m 垂直均方根误差（RMSEV））和 Mosaic Tile（4.9 m RMSEV）产品的垂直精度结果因土地覆盖类型而异，所有土地覆盖类型都超过了 PGC 提供的规格（0.5 m RMSEV）。研究发现，带状 DSM 垂直精度在 4.6-6.8 m RMSEV 之间变化，具体取决于 PGC 生成的云层覆盖元数据字段。鉴于这种变化，EarthDEM 产品的垂直精度合规性被评为“基本”。
Overall, the assessment report supports the use of EarthDEM data for NASA Earth science research and applications, as long as the data characteristics (e.g., vertical accuracy, poor cloud masking, missing surface features, data voids, etc.) are compatible with the specific science objectives and use cases.
总体而言，评估报告支持将 EarthDEM 数据用于 NASA 地球科学研究和应用，只要数据特征（例如，垂直精度、不良云掩蔽、表面特征缺失、数据空白等）与特定科学目标和用例兼容。
The report also provides a Data Provider Documentation Review for the EarthDEM product that evaluated information from the PGC website, as well as a series of peer-reviewed publications by researchers at The Ohio State University’s Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. (Only documents listed in this report were considered in the evaluation.) The report’s authors found that, overall, the EarthDEM product is “well documented,” with most information present within the product User Guide , a series of peer reviewed papers, or the PGC GitHub repository.
该报告还提供了 EarthDEM 产品的数据提供商文档审查，该产品评估了 PGC 网站的信息，以及俄亥俄州立大学伯德极地和气候研究中心研究人员的一系列同行评审出版物。 （评估中仅考虑了本报告中列出的文档。）该报告的作者发现，总体而言，EarthDEM 产品“有详细记录”，大多数信息都包含在产品用户指南、一系列同行评审论文或 PGC GitHub 存储库中。
The CSDA program was established to identify, evaluate, and acquire data from commercial sources that support the NASA Earth science research and application goals. NASA’s Earth Science Division recognizes the potential impact commercial satellite constellations may have in encouraging/enabling efficient approaches to advancing Earth System Science and applications development for societal benefit. Commercially acquired data may also provide a cost-effective means to augment and/or complement the suite of Earth observations acquired by NASA, other U.S. government agencies, and international partners.
CSDA 计划旨在识别、评估和获取商业来源的数据，以支持 NASA 地球科学研究和应用目标。美国宇航局地球科学部门认识到商业卫星星座在鼓励/启用有效方法来推进地球系统科学和应用开发以造福社会方面可能产生的潜在影响。商业获取的数据还可以提供一种经济有效的方式来增强和/或补充 NASA、其他美国政府机构和国际合作伙伴获取的地球观测套件。
To read the reports in full, see the links under “Evaluation” heading on the Polar Geospatial Center vendor page on the CSDA website.
要阅读完整报告，请参阅 CSDA 网站极地地理空间中心供应商页面上“评估”标题下的链接。
1. According the authors of the report, “it should be noted that the PGC EarthDEM product is not technically a commercial product…. EarthDEM is a digital elevation dataset derived from imagery collected from the Vantor (formerly Maxar) fleet of optical satellites.”
1. 该报告的作者指出，“应该指出的是，PGC EarthDEM 产品在技术上并不是商业产品……EarthDEM 是一个数字高程数据集，源自从 Vantor（以前称为 Maxar）光学卫星群收集的图像。”