16.18. dem_geoid

This tool takes as input a DEM whose height values are relative to the datum ellipsoid, and adjusts those values to be relative to the equipotential surface of the planet (geoid on Earth, and areoid on Mars). The program can also apply the reverse of this adjustment. The adjustment simply subtracts from the DEM height the geoid height (correcting, if need be, for differences in dimensions between the DEM and geoid datum ellipsoids).

Three geoids and one areoid are supported. The Earth geoids are: EGM96 and EGM2008, relative to the WGS84 datum ellipsoid (http://earth-info.nga.mil/GandG/wgs84/gravitymod/egm96/egm96.html, http://earth-info.nga.mil/GandG/wgs84/gravitymod/egm2008/egm08_wgs84.html) and NAVD88, relative to the NAD83 datum ellipsoid (http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/GEOID/GEOID09/).

The Mars areoid is MOLA MEGDR (http://geo.pds.nasa.gov/missions/mgs/megdr.html). When importing it into ASP, we adjusted the areoid height values to be relative to the IAU reference spheroid for Mars of radius 3,396,190 m. The areoid at that source was relative to the Mars radius of 3,396,000 m. Yet dem_geoid can adjust correctly Mars DEMs created in respect to either spheroid.

Example: Go from a DEM in respect to the WGS84 datum to one in respect to the EGM2008 geoid:

dem_geoid input-DEM.tif --geoid egm2008

This program will write a new image file with the suffix -adj.tif.

Command-line options for dem_geoid:

--nodata-value <float(default: -32768)>

The value of no-data pixels, unless specified in the DEM.

--geoid <name (default: EGM96)>

Specify the geoid to use for the given datum. For WGS84 use EGM96 or EGM2008. For Mars use MOLA or leave blank. For NAD83 use NAVD88 or leave blank. When not specified it will be auto-detected.

-o, --output-prefix <name>

Specify the output file prefix.

--double

Output using double precision (64 bit) instead of float (32 bit).

--reverse-adjustment

Go from DEM relative to the geoid/areoid to DEM relative to the datum ellipsoid.

--threads <integer (default: 0)>

Select the number of threads to use for each process. If 0, use the value in ~/.vwrc.

--cache-size-mb <integer (default = 1024)>

Set the system cache size, in MB.

--tile-size <integer (default: 256 256)>

Image tile size used for multi-threaded processing.

--no-bigtiff

Tell GDAL to not create bigtiffs.

--tif-compress <None|LZW|Deflate|Packbits (default: LZW)>

TIFF compression method.

-v, --version

Display the version of software.

-h, --help

Display this help message.