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Full catalog/GLDTMT
GLDTMT·v001·dataset

Bare-ground elevation under the trees (G-LiHT laser)

G-LiHT Digital Terrain Model V001
land NASA LPCLOUD Level 2 active GeoTIFF
In plain English

What it measures. The elevation of the bare ground beneath the trees and other cover, plus the slope and direction the land faces, at very fine one-meter detail over surveyed areas.

How it's made. Created from laser (LiDAR) scans flown on NASA's airborne G-LiHT system, which strips away vegetation to reveal the underlying terrain as a gridded map.

How & where you'd use it. Useful for studying forest landscapes, mapping terrain, and supporting ecology and land-surface research over the surveyed regions.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHYLAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATION

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2011-06-30 → ongoing
  • Measured byG-LiHT (Headwall, Riegl Airborne Lidar)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-170, 10, -50, 73
  • FormatsGeoTIFF
  • StatusACTIVE

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

Goddard’s LiDAR, Hyperspectral, and Thermal Imager ([G-LiHT](https://gliht.gsfc.nasa.gov/)) mission utilizes a portable, airborne imaging system that aims to simultaneously map the composition, structure, and function of terrestrial ecosystems. G-LiHT primarily focuses on a broad diversity of forest communities and ecoregions in North America, mapping aerial swaths over the Conterminous United States (CONUS), Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. The purpose of G-LiHT’s Digital Terrain Model data product (GLDTMT) is to provide LiDAR-derived bare earth elevation, aspect and slope on the EGM96 Geopotential Model. Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center began collecting data over locally-defined areas in 2011 and that the collection will continue to grow as aerial campaigns are flown and processed. GLDTMT data are processed as a raster data product (GeoTIFF) at a nominal 1 meter spatial resolution over locally-defined areas. A low resolution browse is also provided showing the digital terrain with a color map applied in JPEG format.

Get the data

gldtmt_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="GLDTMT",
    version="001",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from LPCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.