{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,21]],"date-time":"2026-05-21T21:35:13Z","timestamp":1779399313436,"version":"3.53.1"},"reference-count":16,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2011,7,1]],"date-time":"2011-07-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1309478400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Global Digital Elevation Models (GDEM) are considered very attractive for current research and application areas due to their free and wide range accessibility. The ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model exhibits the highest spatial resolution data of all global DEMs and it is generated for almost the whole globe. Unfortunately, ASTERGDEM data include many artifacts and height errors that decrease the quality and elevation accuracy significantly. This study provides a method for quality improvement of the ASTER GDEM data by correcting systematic height errors using ICESat laser altimetry data and removing artifacts and anomalies based on a segment-based outlier detection and elimination algorithm. Additionally, elevation errors within water bodies are corrected using a water mask produced from a high-resolution shoreline data set. Results indicate that the accuracy of the corrected ASTER GDEM is significantly improved and most artifacts are appropriately eliminated. Nevertheless, artifacts containing lower height values with respect to the neighboring ground pixels are not entirely eliminated due to confusion with some real non-terrain 3D objects. The proposed method is particularly useful for areas where other high quality DEMs such as SRTM are not available.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs3071323","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2011,7,1]],"date-time":"2011-07-01T11:36:59Z","timestamp":1309520219000},"page":"1323-1343","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":52,"title":["Accuracy Enhancement of ASTER Global Digital Elevation Models Using ICESat Data"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"3","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8014-624X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hossein","family":"Arefi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Remote Sensing Technology Institute, German Aerospace Center (DLR), D-82234 Wessling, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8122-1475","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Peter","family":"Reinartz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Remote Sensing Technology Institute, German Aerospace Center (DLR), D-82234 Wessling, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2011,7,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"ERSDACT Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center. Available online: http:\/\/www.ersdac.or.jp."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"ERSDACT(a) Available online: http:\/\/www.gdem.aster.ersdac.or.jp."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Huber, M., Wessel, B., Kosmann, D., Felbier, A., Schwieger, V., Habermeyer, M., Wendleder, A., and Roth, A. (2009, January 12\u201317). Ensuring Globally the TanDEM-X Height Accuracy: Analysis of the Reference Data Sets ICESat, SRTM and KGPS-Tracks. Proceedings of IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS \u201909), Cape Town, South Africa.","DOI":"10.1109\/IGARSS.2009.5418204"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3365","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2009.2021468","article-title":"ICESat full-waveform altimetry compared to airborne laser scanning altimetry over The Netherlands","volume":"47","author":"Duong","year":"2009","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"NASA\/ICESat, Available online: http:\/\/icesat.gsfc.nasa.gov\/."},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"Rodriguez, E., Morris, C., Belz, J., Chapin, E., Martin, J., Daffer, W., and Hensley, S. (2005). An Assessment of the SRTM Topographic Products, Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Technical Report JPL D-31639."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Arefi, H., and Reinartz, P. (2010, January 15\u201318). Elimination of the Outliers from Aster GDEM data. Proceedings of The 2010 Canadian Geomatics Conference and Symposium of Commission I, ISPRS, Calgary, AB, Canada. Part 1."},{"key":"ref_8","first-page":"344","article-title":"The ASTER Global DEM","volume":"76","author":"Abrams","year":"2010","journal-title":"Photogramm. Eng. Remote Sensing"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"176","DOI":"10.1109\/83.217222","article-title":"Morphological grayscale reconstruction in image analysis: Applications and efficient algorithms","volume":"2","author":"Vincent","year":"1993","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Image Process."},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"Arefi, H., and Hahn, M. (2005, January 12\u201314). A Morphological Reconstruction Algorithm for Separating Off-Terrain Points from Terrain Points in Laser Scanning Data. Proceedings of the ISPRS Workshop Laser Scanning 2005, Enschede, The Netherlands. Part 3\/W19."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"Arefi, A. (2009). From LIDAR Point Clouds to 3D Building Models. [Ph.D. Thesis, Bundeswehr University]."},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Gonzalez, R.C., and Woods, R.E. (2008). Digital Image Processing, Prentice Hall."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Soille, P. (2003). Morphological Image Analysis: Principles and Applications, Springer-Verlag. [2nd ed.].","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-662-05088-0"},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"GSHHS\u2014A Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, Highresolution Shoreline Database, Available online: http:\/\/www.ngdc.noaa.gov\/mgg\/shorelines\/gshhs.html."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8741","DOI":"10.1029\/96JB00104","article-title":"A global self-consistent, hierarchical, high-resolution shoreline database","volume":"101","author":"Wessel","year":"1996","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Haining, R. (2003). Spatial Data Analysis: Theory and Practice, Cambridge University Press. [1st ed.].","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9780511754944"}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/3\/7\/1323\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T21:56:37Z","timestamp":1760219797000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/3\/7\/1323"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2011,7,1]]},"references-count":16,"journal-issue":{"issue":"7","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2011,7]]}},"alternative-id":["rs3071323"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs3071323","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2072-4292","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2011,7,1]]}}}