It seems like they are using IMAGES of the area and then using visual processing...

		EMM_386 on Aug 13, 2019 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Supercomputers will start building a 3D map of the... It seems like they are using IMAGES of the area and then using visual processing to determine the 3D height map. That would be intense visual processing, stitching together various angles of photos to work out a terrain elevation. They are not dealing with a 3D point cloud of elevation data.

Sounds as if they plan to use agisoft photoscan to process all satellite images they can find.