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Copernicus DEM — available datasets#

The dem backend curates two open Copernicus DEM grids from the ESA / Airbus TanDEM-X derived collection. Both live on anonymous AWS Open Data buckets in eu-central-1, both cover the whole global land surface as 1° x 1° COG tiles, and both need no credentials.

dataset= Bucket Native res. Tile-name token Datum
cop-dem-glo-30 (default) copernicus-dem-30m ~30 m 10 EGM2008 vertical, WGS84 horizontal
cop-dem-glo-90 copernicus-dem-90m ~90 m 30 EGM2008 vertical, WGS84 horizontal

Discoverability aliases#

The four keys dem, copernicus-dem, cop-dem, and elevation all route to the same backend — pick whichever reads best in your code:

EarthLens(data_source="dem", ...)
EarthLens(data_source="copernicus-dem", ...)
EarthLens(data_source="cop-dem", ...)
EarthLens(data_source="elevation", ...)

Coverage#

Both grids are global land, tiled on the integer-degree grid. Ocean tiles are absent from the bucket (see Introduction). A bbox that lies entirely on land returns one COG per intersected tile; a coastal bbox returns only the land tiles and logs each ocean-side miss.

Attribution#

Both grids are © ESA, produced from Copernicus data, and free to use with attribution.

What is not shipped in the first cut#

  • OpenTopography's globaldem REST (SRTM / NASADEM / AW3D30 / USGS 3DEP / ArcticDEM / REMA behind a single endpoint) is intentionally deferred — it needs an API key + a per-day rate limit, which breaks the account-free premise this backend is built for. It may be added later as a second endpoint, but Copernicus DEM stays the default.
  • JAXA AW3D30 and FABDEM — plausible drop-in additions if a user needs them; not shipped in the first cut.
  • ArcticDEM / REMA mosaics — need their own tile-strip-versioned handling; out of scope for a bbox-tile backend.