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Just curious, have anyone tried to extract elevation data from LANDSAT or MODIS imagery? So far, I came across one journal by Toutin who did so using adjacent LANDSAT 7 imageries. Results seem pretty decent.

Anyone have any ideas???

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  • Is this the paper?: Toutin, T. (2001). Elevation modelling from satellite visible and infrared (VIR) data. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 22(6), 1097-1125.
    – Aaron ♦
    Commented Sep 2, 2014 at 13:01
  • you can use ASTER with band 3 at nadir and backward (band 3N and 3B)
    – Pau
    Commented Sep 2, 2014 at 13:08
  • yep that would be, but in my current study, i need to obtain the volume change in a land area between 2 periods due to ground movement. one of the image is in 2014 which is why I need a separate method to derive recent elevation, apart from ground base instrumentations. Im pretty much banging my head over this obstacle
    – Corse
    Commented Sep 3, 2014 at 3:22

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Landsat and Modis are optical sensors, which means that they provide digital numbers of reflected materials that are within the electromagnetic spectrum. These values correspond to the wave length of the corresponding satellite band. To get elevation from just the raw values would be impossible. The only potential means to collect elevation information would be to have stereo pairs and collect elevation from stereo compilation. Please share the link to the journal so we can all review the article and comment accordingly.

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    You're absolutely correct, except that the satellites do also provide thermal infrared bands and there has been some research into using nightime thermal imagery (non-stereo) to create DEMs. I'm not sure how good the quality of these DEMs would be compared to those created by traditional stereo methods though.
    – WhiteboxDev
    Commented Sep 2, 2014 at 21:02
  • hmm thats an interesting approach! Any ideas where could I find references to the method of using thermal bands for DEM extraction? the title of the journal is this: DEM from Stereo Landsat 7 Data Over High Relief Areas - Toutin (2002). Do have a look!
    – Corse
    Commented Sep 3, 2014 at 3:01

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