Abstract: The Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA) and TanDEM-X DEM are two internationally released high-resolution DEMs based on remote sensing images. Cryosat-2 satellite altimetry data and IceBridge airborne altimetry data were used to verify and compare the accuracy of the two DEMs for the Antarctic ice sheet,considering factors such as radar signal penetration and slope. The results show that within the range of the Antarctic ice sheet, compared with CryoSat-2 data, the mean elevation difference of REMA was −0.742 m, the standard deviation was 5.269 m, the mean elevation difference of the TanDEM-X DEM was 2.946 m, and the standard deviation was 5.755 m. The difference in elevation between the TanDEM-X DEM and IceBridge data in the inland area of Antarctica was slightly smaller than the difference in elevation at the edge of the ice sheet. The overall difference in elevation was more obvious than that between the REMA and IceBridge data. The elevation values of REMA were slightly higher than those of the TanDEM-X DEM. The mean elevation difference between the two DEMs was 3.742 m, and the standard deviation was 2.807 m. This was related to the penetration of the snow source of the TanDEM-X DEM data source based on X-band radar waves.

Key words: Antarctic ice sheet, digital elevation model, REMA, TanDEM-X DEM