Seeking DEM data to make hillshade and contours?

Question

I used to make hillshade and contours for several scales from Aster 30m GDEM with ErMapper. My data is not covering everything I need, so I am looking for a recent one.

I saw there was a Aster GDEM v3 available for download on Reverb Echo Nasa website: https://reverb.echo.nasa.gov/reverb/

but I can't download the extent I need in one time (max 2000 tiles by download and I need more than 32000).

So before starting the downloads, I was wondering if Aster was the best data nowadays. Does anyone know other DEM data? Maybe more precise than 30m, and available for free. The extent I need contains Spain, France, Belgium and Switzerland.

Answer 1

Today LiDAR data are quite often used in different research fields. In some country, that type of dataset is freely accessible. Given the extent of the area you are interested in, I think you may want to stick with something rather coarse, mainly (but not exclusively) for computation/processing reasons. Please note that there is something slightly less coarse than 30 m (actually, cell size 25m): Eudem (http://land.copernicus.eu/pan-european/satellite-derived-products/eu-dem), free accessible upon registration, which includes the countries you were referring to (actually, the whole Europe). Worth giving it a try.