Global elevation map including buildings, 30m (Copernicus) — cop-dem-glo-30-dged-cog

In plain English

What it measures. Represents the Earth's surface as a height model at 30-metre detail, capturing not just bare ground but also buildings, infrastructure, and vegetation on top.

How it's made. Built from Copernicus satellite radar data and delivered worldwide as cloud-optimised image files at 30-metre resolution.

How & where you'd use it. Widely used for mapping, flood modelling, visibility and line-of-sight studies, and any project that needs consistent global terrain and surface heights.

What's measured

CopernicusESASatelliteGlobalDEMEUEC

Coverage & cadence

Time span2010-12-12 → 2015-01-16
Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90

What you can do with it

Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time

Official description

This Collection provides Copernicus DEM COG products, which represent the surface of the Earth including buildings, infrastructure and vegetation, in resolution of 30 meters.

Get the data

copernicus_access.py

# ESA Copernicus Data Space — open STAC API (free account)
from pystac_client import Client

cat = Client.open("https://stac.dataspace.copernicus.eu/v1")
search = cat.search(
    collections=["cop-dem-glo-30-dged-cog"],   # add _cog or _nc for a format variant
    bbox=(-10, 35, 30, 60),             # your area (W,S,E,N)
    datetime="2024-01-01/2024-12-31",
)
items = list(search.items())            # then read assets with rioxarray / xarray

Browsing the Copernicus STAC is open; downloading bytes needs a free Copernicus Data Space account.

earthsearch_access.pyAWS Earth Search · no login

# AWS Earth Search — anonymous, no login (cloud-optimized on S3)
from pystac_client import Client

cat = Client.open("https://earth-search.aws.element84.com/v1")
items = cat.search(
    collections=["cop-dem-glo-30"],
    bbox=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),   # your area (W,S,E,N)
    datetime="2024-01-01/2024-12-31",
).item_collection()
# open assets straight from S3 with rioxarray / stackstac — no credentials

Also mirrored on AWS Earth Search — the same data, cloud-optimized on public S3, anonymous (no login at all).

Official links

Open data source Copernicus STAC