Fusion of public DEMs based on sparse representation and adaptive regularization variation model

Global or quasi-global digital elevation model (DEM) datasets provide three-dimensional information on terrain surface, and they have been extremely useful in geoscience research and applications. However, the wide application of DEMs is constrained by differences in the means of observation and processing, and in the resolution of global public DEM datasets. An adaptive regularization variation model based on sparse representation is proposed to generate a high-quality DEM by fusing multi-source DEMs. First, since the sparse representation method has a powerful capability to reconstruct information based on a small amount of information, prior terrain information is extracted from the 90-m TanDEM-X DEM (TDM90) with unprecedented global accuracy using a so-called sparse representation. In this step, an intermediate DEM (termed STDM30) is first extracted from TDM90 that preserves maximum terrain details, thereby preventing the degradation of the DEM accuracy induced by resampling. Then, the designed regularization framework based on terrain slope can constrain the DEM spatial information during fusing multiple datasets. STDM30 is combined with the ALOS Global Digital Surface Model “ALOS World 3D 30 m” (AW3D30) and the 1 arc-second Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Digital Elevation Model (SRTM1) through the designed adaptive regularization variation model to generate a high-accuracy DEM product with a resolution of 30 m. The results of the proposed method were verified by a model-to-model comparison in South Dakota as well as by validation against GPS benchmarks in Southern California. The RMSE, MAE, and SD of the fused DEM are all lower than those of the existing public DEMs, especially in terms of removing topographic noise and refining terrain details. The GPS validation showed that the fused DEM has an RMSE of 3.04 m, with the highest absolute accuracy among the four studied DEMs, and its errors are almost equal to the normal distribution. These experimental results confirm that the multi-scale and multi-source DEM fusion strategy combining sparse representation and an adaptive regularization variation model can utilize existing public datasets and effectively improve the quality of global DEM products.