The elevation
of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, often the mean sea level. Elevation, or geometric height
, is mainly used when referring to points on the Earth's surface, while altitude
or geopotential height
is used for points above the surface, such as an aircraft in flight or a spacecraft in orbit.
Less commonly, elevation is measured using the center of the Earth as the reference point. Due to equatorial bulge, there is debate which of the summits of Mt. Everest or Chimborazo is at the higher elevation, as the Chimborazo summit is further from the Earth's center while the Mt. Everest summit is higher above mean sea level.
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ELEVATION TICKETS
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Maps and GIS
A
topographical map is the main type of
map used to depict elevation, often through use of
contour lines.
In a
Geographic Information System (GIS),
digital elevation models (DEM) are commonly used to represent the surface (topography) of a place, through a
raster (grid) dataset of elevations.
Digital terrain models are another way to represent terrain in GIS.
To determine elevation of a place, it must be
surveyed, in reference to a
ground control point.
Topography
The elevation of a
mountain usually refers to its
summit. The elevation of a hill also refers to the summit. A valley's elevation is
usually
taken from the lowest point but is often taken all over the valley.
Global 1-kilometer map
This map is derived from
GTOPO30 data that describes the elevation of Earth's terrain at intervals of 30 arcseconds (approximately 1 km). It uses color and shading instead of contour lines to indicate elevation.
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| Each tile is available at a resolution of 1800 × 1800 pixels (approximate file size 1 MB, 60 pixels = 1 degree, 1 pixel = 1 minute)
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See also
Look up elevation
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
- altitude
- geodesy
- *geodesy of North America
- **Sea Level Datum of 1929 later National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 (NGVD 29)
- **North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88)
- Highest mountain peaks of North America
- List of European cities by elevation
- List of highest mountains
- List of highest towns by country
- physical geography
- summit (topography)
- topographic isolation
- topographic map
- topographic prominence
- topography