Introducing SETSM

The Surface Extraction from TIN-based Searchspace Minimization (SETSM) software is a fully automatic algorithm for deriving Digital Terrain Models (DTM) from pairs of satellite imagery. The lead author of SETSM is Dr. Myoung-Jong Noh of the Byrd Polar & Climate Research Center at OSU. An overview of SETSM and a validation of DTM’s created with SETSM from Worldview imagery is provided in Noh and Howat (2015).

SETSM is designed for instant installation and user-friendly operation. SETSM is written entirely in the C programming language and requires no external libraries.  It requires no pre-existing terrain information or site-specific parameters, using only the information contained in the imagery metadata. SETSM is currently installed and running on HPC systems at the Ohio Supercomputer Center, NSF XSEDE and NASA.  Linux and Windows distributions of SETSM are now available for beta users. If you are interested in trying SETSM , please contact either Dr. Myoung-Jong Noh or Dr. Ian Howat.

In partnership with the Polar Geospatial Center, our group has embarked on a massive implementation of SETSM to derive high-resolution (2-10 meter) DTM mosaics of large areas. These data are openly available, and new data are being added as they are produced.

SETSM was developed as part of grant NNX10AN61G from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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