The TanDEM-X Change DEM: the new temporal DEM of the TanDEM-X Mission

The TanDEM-X mission is currently acquiring a new dataset to provide a temporally independent DEM, the so-called “TanDEM-X Change DEM”. This set of acquisitions taken between 2017 and 2020 has a clear temporal separation with respect to the data used for the generation of the TanDEM-X global DEM which were acquired between 2010 and 2015. Therefore, this new DEM aims to enable the characterization of terrain changes. Improvements in the acquisition planning process and in the data processing have been necessary to allow the generation of this Change DEM with fewer acquisitions but still very high accuracy. For this, the use of an edited TanDEM-X DEM as a "starting point" for the interferometric processing is mandatory.