The NOAA Global Land One-km Base Elevation Project (GLOBE) project to develop the best available 30 arc-second elevation digital elevation model with worldwide coverage. The data is for elevations only. Elevations are given in meters above mean sea level using the WGS84 reference ellipsoid.
According to the GLOBE documentation:
GLOBE is an internationally designed, developed, and independently peer-reviewed global digital elevation model (DEM), at a latitude-longitude grid spacing of 30 arc-seconds (30").
The Global Land One-Kilometer Base Elevation (GLOBE) digital elevation model (DEM) is a global data set covering 180o West to 180 degrees East longitude and 90 degrees North to 90 degrees South latitude. The horizontal grid spacing is 30 arc-seconds (0.008333... degrees) in latitude and longitude, resulting in dimensions of 21,600 rows and 43,200 columns. At the Equator, a degree of latitude is about 111 kilometers. GLOBE has 120 values per degree, giving GLOBE slightly better than 1 km gridding at the Equator, and progressively finer longitudinally toward the Poles
script/setup.sh is used to set up the project in an initial state. It will download and extract the tiles and headers.
The data are available directly from NOAA for download (For USA coverage, download data for tiles A,B,E,F):
D. A. Hastings, P. K. Dunbar, "Global Land One-kilometer Base Elevation (GLOBE) Digital Elevation Model Documentation Volume 1.0", National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Key to Geophysical Records Documentation (KGRD), vol. 34, May 1999.
@techreport{hastingsGlobalLandOne1999,
address = {{325 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado 80303, U.S.A}},
type = {Professional {{Paper}}},
title = {Global {{Land One Kilometer Base Elevation}} ({{GLOBE}}) {{Digital Elevation Model}}, {{Documentation}}, {{Volume}} 1.0. {{Key}}},
abstract = {"This is the first version of documentation for the Global Land One-kilometer Base Elevation (GLOBE) data set. GLOBE is an internationally designed, developed, and independently peer-reviewed global digital elevation model (DEMj, at a latitude-longitude grid spacing of 30 arc-seconds (30"). This report describes the history of the GLOBE project, the candidate data sets, data compilation techniques, organization, and use of the data base. The data are available on CD-ROM and the World Wide Web"--Executive Summary.},
language = {en},
number = {NGDC Key to Geophysical Records Documentation No. 34},
institution = {{National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,}},
author = {Hastings, D. A. (David A.) and Dunbar, Paula K.},
collaborator = {{National Geophysical Data Center}},
month = may,
year = {1999},
keywords = {Computer programs,Digital elevation models,Documentation,Global differential geometry},
pages = {133}
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