Getting Started
1. What is OpenTopography?
OpenTopography provides web-based access to high-resolution topographic data (meter to sub-meter scale) and regional to global datasets (2–90 m resolution) derived from lidar, radar, and photogrammetry, together with on-demand processing and visualization tools that support research to advance our understanding of the Earth’s surface, vegetation, and built environment.
Quick Overview Video
2. What data are available from OpenTopography?
- High Resolution Topography Datasets (meter to sub-meter scale)
- OpenTopography hosted lidar datasets (red outlines on data map)
- USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP)* (green outlines)
- NOAA Coastal Topographic Lidar* (blue outlines)
- Community contributed data (purple outlines)
- Regional and Global Datasets
- Global raster datasets (e.g. Copernicus / ALOS / SRTM / NASADEM Global Digital Elevation Models
- PGC ArcticDEM / Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA)*
- USGS 1 meter / 1 arc-second / 1/3rd arc-second Digital Elevation Models
- International Digital Elevation Model datasets (e.g. Medium Resolution Digital Elevation Model of Canada)
Discover and access the complete list of topography datasets via the Find Topography Data map interface.
View a listing of available topography datasets available along with detailed metadata information.
* These data are also available Open and Free to the public from other sources.
- USGS 3DEP - https://registry.opendata.aws/usgs-lidar/
- NOAA Coastal Lidar - https://registry.opendata.aws/noaa-coastal-lidar/
- PGC ArcticDEM/REMA - https://www.pgc.umn.edu/data/
3. Are there any data access restrictions?
OpenTopography is funded by the Division of Earth Sciences at the US National Science Foundation and will be completely free and open to the academic research and education community*. OpenTopography provides many topography datasets freely to the public. However, some value-added datasets** such as USGS 3DEP, NOAA Coastal Lidar, ArcticDEM, and REMA are restricted primarily to the U.S. academic research and education community due to funding limits.
| Guest User | Registered User (non-academic) | OT+ Subscriber | Academics | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Access** | OpenTopography-hosted High Resolution (red), global 10m+ (orange) | OpenTopography-hosted High Resolution (red), global 10m+ (orange) | All datasets | All datasets |
| Maximum Spatial Region Selection (per job) | 500 km2 | 500 km2 | 500 km2 | 500 km2 |
| Maximum Point Cloud Selection (per job) | 50 million | 250 million | 350 million (250 Million for USGS/NOAA) | 350 million (250 Million for USGS/NOAA) |
| Cloud Processing Tools | Core Services | All | All | All |
| API Data Access | None | All Global, USGS 10m / 30m | All Global & USGS (inc. 1m) | All Global & USGS (inc. 1m) |
| API Processing Limits | N/A | Global - 50 jobs/24 hours, USGS 10/30m - 50 Jobs/24 hours | Global - 200 jobs/24 hours, USGS - 200 Jobs/24 hours | Global- 200 jobs/24 hours, USGS - 200 Jobs/24 hours |
| Cost | Free | Free | OT+ Subscription $30/month or $330/year |
Free |
* US academics with a .edu email, create an account and enable access to restricted datasets. K-12 teachers, international academics, and informal educators can apply for access here.
** Several restricted datasets are also available Open and Free to the public from other sources.
- USGS 3DEP - https://registry.opendata.aws/usgs-lidar/
- NOAA Coastal Lidar - https://registry.opendata.aws/noaa-coastal-lidar/
- PGC ArcticDEM/REMA - https://www.pgc.umn.edu/data/