The TanDEM-X 30m DEM Change Maps: applications and further developments

Abstract:
The TanDEM-X mission has been acquiring continuously bistatic data from which DEM are derived since 2010. The outstanding quality of these DEMs enables the observation of changes that occur on the whole Earth’s landmass. This paper presents the new product of the TanDEM-X mission, the TanDEM-X 30m DEM Change Maps, which is available for free for scientific and non-commercial use since November 2023. Various applications which are primordial for climate change monitoring are introduced and show how the DEM Change Maps can be a very useful input to derive information about e.g. glacier melting, mining monitoring or deforestation globally. Finally, the next developments towards building DEM Change Maps time series are explained.