3.1 DEM File (.HGT)

The DEM is provided as 16-bit signed integer data in a simple binary raster. There are no header
or trailer bytes embedded in the file. The data are stored in row major order (all the data for row
1, followed by all the data for row 2, etc.).
All elevations are in meters referenced to the WGS84/EGM96 geoid as documented at http://
www.NGA.mil/GandG/wgsegm/.
Byte order is Motorola ("big-endian") standard with the most significant byte first. Since they are
signed integers elevations can range from -32767 to 32767 meters, encompassing the range of
elevation to be found on the Earth.
These data also contain occassional voids from a number of causes such as shadowing, phase
unwrapping anomalies, or other radar-specific causes. Voids are flagged with the value -32768.