{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,12]],"date-time":"2026-03-12T19:32:34Z","timestamp":1773343954237,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"13","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,21]],"date-time":"2024-06-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1718928000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are a necessity for modelling many large-scale environmental processes. In this study, we investigate the potential of data from two spaceborne lidar altimetry missions, ICESat-2 and GEDI\u2014with respect to their vertical accuracies and planimetric data collection patterns\u2014as sources for rasterisation towards creating global DEMs. We validate the terrain measurements of both missions against airborne lidar datasets over three areas in the Netherlands, Switzerland, and New Zealand and differentiate them using land-cover classes. For our experiments, we use five years of ICESat-2 ATL03 data and four years of GEDI L2A data for a total of 252 million measurements. The datasets are filtered using parameter flags provided by the higher-level products ICESat-2 ATL08 and GEDI L3A. For all areas and land-cover classes combined, ICESat-2 achieves a bias of \u22120.11 m, an MAE of 0.43 m, and an RMSE of 0.93 m. From our experiments, we find that GEDI is less accurate, with a bias of 0.09 m, an MAE of 0.98 m, and an RMSE of 2.96 m. Measurements in open land-cover classes, such as \u201cCropland\u201d and \u201cGrassland\u201d, result in the best accuracy for both missions. We also find that the slope of the terrain has a major influence on vertical accuracy, more so for GEDI than ICESat-2 because of its larger horizontal geolocation error. In contrast, we find little effect of either beam power or background solar radiation, nor do we find noticeable seasonal effects on accuracy. Furthermore, we investigate the spatial coverage of ICESat-2 and GEDI by deriving a DEM at different horizontal resolutions and latitudes. GEDI has higher spatial coverage than ICESat-2 at lower latitudes due to its beam pattern and lower inclination angle, and a derived DEM can achieve a resolution of 500 m. ICESat-2 only reaches a DEM resolution of 700 m at the equator, but it increases to almost 200 m at higher latitudes. When combined, a 500 m resolution lidar-based DEM can be achieved globally. Our results indicate that both ICESat-2 and GEDI enable accurate terrain measurements anywhere in the world. Especially in data-poor areas\u2014such as the tropics\u2014this has potential for new applications and insights.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs16132259","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,21]],"date-time":"2024-06-21T05:33:28Z","timestamp":1718948008000},"page":"2259","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Assessing Vertical Accuracy and Spatial Coverage of ICESat-2 and GEDI Spaceborne Lidar for Creating Global Terrain Models"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8758-3939","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maarten","family":"Pronk","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Deltares, P.O. Box 177, 2600 MH Delft, The Netherlands"},{"name":"Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5, 2600 AA Delft, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1669-6327","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marieke","family":"Eleveld","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Deltares, P.O. Box 177, 2600 MH Delft, The Netherlands"},{"name":"Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5, 2600 AA Delft, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1251-8654","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hugo","family":"Ledoux","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5, 2600 AA Delft, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3875","DOI":"10.1080\/01431161003786016","article-title":"SRTM DEM and Its Application Advances","volume":"32","author":"Yang","year":"2011","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"818","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2011.08.003","article-title":"Auto-Detection and Integration of Tectonically Significant Lineaments from SRTM DEM and Remotely-Sensed Geophysical Data","volume":"66","author":"Masoud","year":"2011","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm. 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