Tell me more ×
Geographic Information Systems Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for cartographers, geographers and GIS professionals. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 11 down vote favorite
3

Where can I find free elevation data for Europe? Please mention the available resolutions and terms of use when posting a source.

share|improve this question

3 Answers

up vote 13 down vote accepted

The 3-arc second (~90 meter) SRTM covers all of Europe to 60° N, has good positional accuracy and is part of the public domain. CGIAR provides an interface for easily downloading the data tiles, which are provided in both ASCII and GeoTIFF formats.

share|improve this answer
2  
as far as I know the data processed/distributed by CIGAR are not in the public domain. you can use them free of charge for non-commercial projects and for commerical usage you have to ask. please see here: srtm.csi.cgiar.org/SRTM_FAQ.asp#1 – Kurt Feb 5 at 16:51
1  
Distribution alone is insufficient to change the data license, but it may be their version is sufficiently transformative to render it a new work. In any case, you can download the raw tiles which are in the public domain from USGS: dds.cr.usgs.gov/srtm/version2_1 – scw Feb 6 at 20:31
up vote 7 down vote

Elevation can be extracted (x,y,z values) from

ETOPO1 is a 1 arc-minute global relief model of Earth's surface that integrates land topography and ocean bathymetry. It was built from numerous global and regional data sets, and is available in "Ice Surface" (top of Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets) and "Bedrock" (base of the ice sheets) versions. Historic ETOPO2v2 and ETOPO5 global relief grids are deprecated but still available.

Grid/node-registered: cells are centered on lines of latitude and longitude (21601 by 10801 cells). Cell/pixel-registered: cell edges are along lines of latitude and longitude (21600 by 10800 cells).

http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/global.html

ETOPO1 Ice Surface: grid-registered: netCDF, GRD98, binary*, xyz, georeferenced tiff cell-registered: netCDF, GRD98, binary*, xyz, georeferenced tiff ETOPO1 Bedrock: grid-registered: netCDF, GRD98, binary*, xyz, georeferenced tiff cell-registered: netCDF, GRD98, binary*, xyz, georeferenced tiff

* ArcGIS users - use binary and convert using 'Float to Raster' Custom Grids

Online: Custom regional grids can be created online from ETOPO1 using NGDC's Grid Translator; Desktop/Offline: For both cell-centered and grid-centered downloaded grids, custom grids with user-defined bounds can be created in multiple formats, using the desktop version of Grid Translator, part of the free GEODAS Windows Software for Online Downloads and GEODAS XWindows Software.

How to Cite ETOPO1:

Amante, C. and B. W. Eakins, ETOPO1 1 Arc-Minute Global Relief Model: Procedures, Data Sources and Analysis. NOAA Technical Memorandum NESDIS NGDC-24, 19 pp, March 2009.

FTP Site: ftp://ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/relief/ETOPO1/data/ice_surface/grid_registered/binary/ Big Files! for download [contains x,y,z values]

share|improve this answer
Mapperz, underdark was looking for Europe data. Doesn't the NOAA site only feature relief data for Antarctic and Greenland? I would also like to know where to obtain 1 arc-minute data for Europe and Canada... – Jakub Sep 8 '10 at 13:34
1  
The Clue is "global relief model" highlighted in Bold.. – Mapperz♦ Sep 8 '10 at 18:48
This is a GLOBAL dataset - see comments below. Have used this in many mapping projects but always remember to cite the source: – Mapperz♦ Sep 8 '10 at 18:56
show 1 more comment
up vote 2 down vote

The ASTER GDEM v.2 coverage spans from 83 degrees north latitude to 83 degrees south. Each elevation measurement point in the data is 30 meters apart (also in Europe) see ASTER Global DEM (GDEM) Version 2 Released with Significant Updates

Download tiles from NASA

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.