What are the units for a USGS NED DEM?

[AlmaA]

Hello, perhaps a silly question.... but if the USGS NED DEM I am working with is 1/3 arc second resolution, what are the units?  I need them to be meters and not sure if I need to do any conversion.

thanks so much!

[DavidPike]

Measuring in Arc-Seconds (esri.com)

It really depends on your latitude. I'd suggest projecting the data into a planimetric system with horizontal units of feet or metres (probably use a projection with the same datum (NAD83 I think?) like a UTM NAD83 system) depending on your study area.

[AlmaA]

Yes, my projected coordinate system is NAD 1983 UTM Zone 12.  I just found this:  https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-are-projection-horizontal-and-vertical-datum-and-resolution-3d-elevat...

So I guess this means the elevation units are in meters?  Which is really what I care for.

[DavidPike · Accepted solution]

Yep, the vertical units are metres above the datum.