Generation and evaluation of Cartosat -1 DEM for Chhota Shigri Glacier, Himalaya

A digital elevation model (DEM) is a simple representation of a surface in 3 dimensional way with height as the third dimension along with x and y in rectangular axes. DEM has wide applications in various areas like disaster management, hydrology and water management, geomorphology and in urban development. Valuable information about a terrain can be inferred by exploiting a DEM in proper way. Study of DEM becomes very useful for studying mountainous terrain such as Himalaya which is otherwise hard to access due to harsh weather and inaccessibility. Cartosat-1 or IRS P5 (Indian Remote Sensing Satellite) is a state-of-the-art remote sensing satellite built by ISRO which is mainly intended for cartographic applications. The satellite carries two panchromatic cameras which are capable of acquiring stereoscopic data along the orbital track. The high resolution stereo data have great potential to produce high-quality DEM. This paper discusses the generation of DEM from Cartosat -1 data for Chhota Shigri glacier (Himachal Pradesh, India). The DEM from Cartosat data was generated both using ground control points (GCPs) and without GCPs. The accuracy of both the DEM has been assessed.