GEDI L3 gridded data now available through OpenTopography
The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) Level 3 gridded mean ground elevation and mean canopy height are now available through OpenTopography. These products are a subset of the level 3 gridded land surface metrics that are available from the NASA ORNL DAAC. The GEDI instrument is onboard the International Space Station, resulting in data coverage from -52 to 52 degrees latitude. This provides a unique, nearly global, canopy height dataset which is critical to studies on canopy vertical structure, carbon and water cycling, biodiversity and habitat, and much more (see GEDI applications )
To access the data via OpenTopography:
GEDI mean elevation data over California and Nevada. DTM is colored by elevation and draped over a hillshade. DTM was downloaded from OpenTopography with the API commands below. Background imagery courtesy of Google.
Extract Data using OpenTopography's API
In addition to the OpenTopography Portal, the GEDI elevation data is available through the OpenTopography Global Datasets API. For more more details on how to use the API see the docs here. The API can be accessed via standard curl command such as:
curl -X GET "https://portal.opentopography.org/API/globaldem?demtype=GEDI_L3&south=31.9&north=42.2&west=-124.5&east=-113&outputFormat=GTiff&API_Key=[YourAPIKeyHere]" -H "accept: */*"
Or via a standard http request with the following URI:
https://portal.opentopography.org/API/globaldem?demtype=GEDI_L3&south=31.9&north=42.2&west=-124.5&east=-113&outputFormat=GTiff&API_Key=[YourAPIKeyHere]
Users can easily register for a free OpenTopography account and request an API key that can be used for API requests. Details on how to obtain an API key can be found here
Slider image with GEDI-derived mean canopy height plotted in green (darker green indicates taller vegetation) for a location in Brazil. The common "fish-bone" pattern of deforestation can be seen in the central and upper parts of the data and imagery. Base imagery is from ESRI.