The Copernicus DEM is a Digital Surface Model (DSM) which represents the surface of the Earth including buildings, infrastructure and vegetation. This DSM is derived from an edited DSM named WorldDEM, where flattening of water bodies and consistent flow of rivers has been included. In addition, editing of shore- and coastlines, special features such as airports, and implausible terrain structures has also been applied.
The WorldDEM product is based on the radar satellite data acquired during the TanDEM-X Mission, which is funded by a Public Private Partnership between the German State, represented by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and Airbus Defence and Space. OpenTopography is providing access to the global GLO-90 Defence Gridded Elevation Data (DGED) 2023_1 version of the data hosted by ESA via the https PRISM service. Details on the Copernicus DSM can be found on this ESA site.