That was done by Alex (@amatulich). The data file is worldmap_360x180.scad in the examples folder.
SRTM data isn't what you want. It only covers about 80% of earths surface. It's better for more detailed relief maps of smaller areas.

If you look at the comments in geotiff2scad.py you'll find sources for additional full-planet data. Not only for earth but for the moon and other planets.

@amatulic @RAMilewski
Thanks for the excellent explanation of how to process the geoTIFF to accentuate coastlines, etc.

I downloaded worldmap_360x180.scad, but I don't know what to do with it. From context in the documentation, it seems I should apply it using textured_tile() but there are no examples using spheres, so maybe not.

OpenPlanetaryMap is probably not worth listing as a reference, mostly everything is placeholders, very little real data. And I would love to know exactly what data you downloaded for the earth elevation geoTIFF. I've spent hours on search.earthdata.nasa.gov and not finding (or not recognizing) the correct data.

Thanks again...

include<BOSL2/std.scad>
include<BOSL2/examples/worldmap_360x180.scad>
$vpr = [70,0,-360*$t];
color("blue") spheroid(20.007, $fn = 256);
rotate_sweep(arc(r = 20, n = 129, start = -90, angle = 180), 360, 
    texture = worldmap, tex_depth = 0.5, tex_reps = [1,1]); 

I'm working on a texturing from images tutorial, but it will be a bit yet.

@dan-p3rry - I got the geoTIFF data from here: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/etopo-global-relief-model - I downloaded the 60 arcsecond ice sheet data. Then I used geotiff2scad.py to convert it to a png file (that script converts geoTIFF to 3 different formats including .scad). You can use img2scad.html to convert the png file to a lower resolution and perform some image processing if needed.

Thanks! That website is a great resource. I got really nice results with the 30 arcsecond data and higher resolution from geotiff2scad.py. I'm diving deeper, will let you know how it goes.

The problem with those depth maps is that they have edge shadows on them, like around the center ball hanging in front of the forehead, the thing the ball is hanging from, and one edge of the chin. Given that it starts out with a 2D outline cartoon, that probably can't be helped. Maybe add to the prompt "outlines of shapes in the original drawing should be treated as cross-section boundaries, not rendered as shadow outlines in the final object."