pDEMtools
pDEMtools provides a convenient set of functions to explore, download, and preprocess high-resolution DEMs of the polar regions from the ArcticDEM and Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica products, courtesy of the Polar Geospatial Center (PGC).
https://github.com/trchudley/pdemtools
Category: Cryosphere
Sub Category: Glacier and Ice Sheets
Keywords
arcticdem coregistration dem digital-elevation-model geospatial glaciers glaciology polar-geospatial-center python rema terrain-analysis
Keywords from Contributors
cryosphere
Last synced: about 14 hours ago
JSON representation
Repository metadata
Conveniently search, download, and process ArcticDEM and REMA products
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/trchudley/pdemtools
- Owner: trchudley
- License: mit
- Created: 2023-05-11T16:15:54.000Z (over 2 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2025-11-14T16:21:17.000Z (about 1 month ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-12-08T01:10:25.714Z (17 days ago)
- Topics: arcticdem, coregistration, dem, digital-elevation-model, geospatial, glaciers, glaciology, polar-geospatial-center, python, rema, terrain-analysis
- Language: Jupyter Notebook
- Homepage: https://pdemtools.readthedocs.io/
- Size: 47.1 MB
- Stars: 30
- Watchers: 3
- Forks: 6
- Open Issues: 2
- Releases: 12
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE.md
- Citation: CITATION.cff
README.md
pDEMtools
Conveniently search, download, and process ArcticDEM and REMA products
pDEMtools provides a convenient set of functions to explore, download, and preprocess high-resolution DEMs of the polar regions from the ArcticDEM (Porter et al. 2022; 2023) and Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA; Howat et al. 2022a, b) products, courtesy of the Polar Geospatial Center (PGC).
The first aim of pDEMtools is to enable access to ArcticDEM and REMA mosaics and multitemporal strips using the search() function and load module:
search(): This function aims to allow users to easily query the PGC STAC API to find relevant ArcticDEM and REMA strips for their areas of interest.load: This module provides simple one-line functions to preview and download strips and mosaics from the relevant AWS bucket to anxarrayDataset.
The second aim is to provide (pre)processing functions specific to the sort of uses that ArcticDEM and REMA users might want (e.g. a focus on ice sheet and cryosphere work), as well as the particular strengths of ArcticDEM and REMA datasets (high-resolution and multitemporal). Tools include:
- Terrain attribute derivation (hillshade, slope, aspect, various curvatures) using a 5x5 polynomial fit suited for high-resolution data.
- Quick geoid correction using BedMachine source data.
- Simple coregistration for quick elevation change analysis.
- Identifying/masking sea level and icebergs.
Rather than introducing custom classes, pDEMtools will always try and return DEM data as an xarray DataArray with geospatial metadata via the rioxarray extension. The aim is to allow the user to quickly move beyond pDEMtools into their own analysis in whatever format they desire, be that xarray, numpy or dask datasets, DEM-specific Python packages such as xdem for advanced coregistration or richdem for flow analysis, or exporting to geospatial file formats for analysis beyond Python.
Contact: thomas.r.chudley@durham.ac.uk
Quick Install
The latest release of pdemtools can installed using conda:
$ conda install pdemtools -c conda-forge
Please visit the pDEMtools readthedocs for more information on installing, using, and contributing to pDEMtools.
Cite
A software paper for pdemtools is published in the Journal of Open Source Software, and can be cited as follows:
Chudley, T. R., and Howat, I. M. (2024). pDEMtools: conveniently search, download, and process ArcticDEM and REMA products. Journal of Open Source Software, 9(102), 7149, doi.org/10.21105/joss.07149
or by using bibtex:
@article{Chudley2024,
title = {pDEMtools: conveniently search, download, and process ArcticDEM and REMA products},
volume = {9},
ISSN = {2475-9066},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.21105/joss.07149},
DOI = {10.21105/joss.07149},
number = {102},
journal = {Journal of Open Source Software},
publisher = {The Open Journal},
author = {Chudley, Thomas R. and Howat, Ian M.},
year = {2024},
pages = {7149}
}
When using ArcticDEM and REMA products, please cite the datasets appropriately and acknowledge the PGC.
Several algorithms implemented in the library were developed by others. These will be highlighted in the documentation, and the original authors should be properly cited when used. For example:
We masked sea ice and melange following the method of Shiggins et al. (2023) as implemented in pDEMtools (Chudley and Howat, 2024).
Refererences
Howat, I., et al. (2022a). The Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica – Strips, Version 4.1. Harvard Dataverse https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/X7NDNY
Howat, I., et al. (2022b). The Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica – Mosaics, Version 2, Harvard Dataverse https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/EBW8UC
Porter, C., et al. (2022). ArcticDEM - Strips, Version 4.1. Harvard Dataverse. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/OHHUKH
Porter, C., et al. (2023), ArcticDEM, Version 4.1, Harvard Dataverse. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/3VDC4W
Acknowledgements
ArcticDEM: DEMs are provided by the Polar Geospatial Center under NSF-OPP awards 1043681, 1559691, and 1542736.
REMA: DEMs are provided by the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center and the Polar Geospatial Center under NSF-OPP awards 1543501, 1810976, 1542736, 1559691, 1043681, 1541332, 0753663, 1548562, 1238993 and NASA award NNX10AN61G. Computer time provided through a Blue Waters Innovation Initiative. DEMs produced using data from Maxar.
Citation (CITATION.cff)
cff-version: "1.2.0"
authors:
- family-names: Chudley
given-names: Thomas R.
orcid: "https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8547-1132"
- family-names: Howat
given-names: Ian M.
orcid: "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8072-6260"
contact:
- family-names: Chudley
given-names: Thomas R.
orcid: "https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8547-1132"
doi: 10.5281/zenodo.13936813
message: If you use this software, please cite our article in the
Journal of Open Source Software.
preferred-citation:
authors:
- family-names: Chudley
given-names: Thomas R.
orcid: "https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8547-1132"
- family-names: Howat
given-names: Ian M.
orcid: "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8072-6260"
date-published: 2024-10-23
doi: 10.21105/joss.07149
issn: 2475-9066
issue: 102
journal: Journal of Open Source Software
publisher:
name: Open Journals
start: 7149
title: "pDEMtools: conveniently search, download, and process
ArcticDEM and REMA products"
type: article
url: "https://joss.theoj.org/papers/10.21105/joss.07149"
volume: 9
title: "pDEMtools: conveniently search, download, and process ArcticDEM
and REMA products"
Owner metadata
- Name: Tom Chudley
- Login: trchudley
- Email:
- Kind: user
- Description:
- Website: https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/thomas-r-chudley/
- Location: Durham, UK
- Twitter: tomchudley
- Company: Sea Level, Ice and Climate Research Cluster, Durham University
- Icon url: https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/24896931?v=4
- Repositories: 1
- Last ynced at: 2023-08-14T10:51:04.710Z
- Profile URL: https://github.com/trchudley
GitHub Events
Total
- Create event: 7
- Release event: 3
- Issues event: 8
- Watch event: 14
- Delete event: 2
- Issue comment event: 10
- Push event: 36
- Pull request event: 6
- Fork event: 2
Last Year
- Create event: 6
- Issues event: 5
- Release event: 2
- Watch event: 9
- Delete event: 2
- Issue comment event: 6
- Push event: 31
- Pull request event: 5
- Fork event: 2
Committers metadata
Last synced: 2 days ago
Total Commits: 157
Total Committers: 8
Avg Commits per committer: 19.625
Development Distribution Score (DDS): 0.102
Commits in past year: 36
Committers in past year: 3
Avg Commits per committer in past year: 12.0
Development Distribution Score (DDS) in past year: 0.083
| Name | Commits | |
|---|---|---|
| trchudley | t****y | 141 |
| Adam R. Jensen | 3****n | 5 |
| Tom Chudley | t****m@t****k | 3 |
| jkingslake | 4****e | 2 |
| Ian Howat | i****t@g****m | 2 |
| Tom Chudley | t****m@T****n | 2 |
| Andrew Tedstone | a****e@u****h | 1 |
| Adrien Wehrlé | a****e@h****r | 1 |
Committer domains:
Issue and Pull Request metadata
Last synced: 2 months ago
Total issues: 20
Total pull requests: 43
Average time to close issues: 2 days
Average time to close pull requests: about 8 hours
Total issue authors: 6
Total pull request authors: 6
Average comments per issue: 1.7
Average comments per pull request: 0.12
Merged pull request: 40
Bot issues: 0
Bot pull requests: 0
Past year issues: 2
Past year pull requests: 8
Past year average time to close issues: 9 days
Past year average time to close pull requests: about 17 hours
Past year issue authors: 2
Past year pull request authors: 3
Past year average comments per issue: 2.5
Past year average comments per pull request: 0.38
Past year merged pull request: 7
Past year bot issues: 0
Past year bot pull requests: 0
Top Issue Authors
- AdamRJensen (9)
- maiwinstrup (7)
- geograFie (1)
- trchudley (1)
- mn5hk (1)
- jkingslake (1)
Top Pull Request Authors
- trchudley (25)
- AdamRJensen (12)
- ihowat (3)
- jkingslake (1)
- AdrienWehrle (1)
- atedstone (1)
Top Issue Labels
- enhancement (1)
Top Pull Request Labels
Package metadata
- Total packages: 1
-
Total downloads:
- pypi: 59 last-month
- Total dependent packages: 0
- Total dependent repositories: 0
- Total versions: 13
- Total maintainers: 1
pypi.org: pdemtools
Conveniently search, download, and preprocess ArcticDEM and REMA products.
- Homepage: https://github.com/trchudley/pdemtools
- Documentation: https://pdemtools.readthedocs.io/
- Licenses: MIT
- Latest release: 1.2.1 (published about 1 month ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-12-22T04:19:45.364Z (3 days ago)
- Versions: 13
- Dependent Packages: 0
- Dependent Repositories: 0
- Downloads: 59 Last month
-
Rankings:
- Dependent packages count: 9.424%
- Average: 35.796%
- Dependent repos count: 62.168%
- Maintainers (1)
Score: 9.639522006701663