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What are the World Elevation services?

  • Visualization
  • Analysis
  • Image services
  • Sources
Note:

Access to the World Elevation services requires authentication using an ArcGIS Online subscription.

The World Elevation services provide online access to global collections of multiresolution, multisource elevation data, or digital terrain models (DTM). This collection includes data with resolutions ranging from over 1,000 meters to approximately 3 meters in some limited areas. The services provide a single source for desktop and web applications to access elevation values and derived products.

You can use it in your desktop and web applications in the following ways:

  • For visualization or analysis
  • As information layers, such as a hillshade or aspect
  • To orthorectify imagery
  • As a data source in your analysis models or other geoprocessing tasks
  • To obtain data locally

Visualization

The World Elevation services provide several products derived from the DTM that you can use in ArcMap to provide context to other layers. There are hillshades, tinted hillshades, slope maps, and aspect maps. Because they are already optimized for viewing on the web, they are ideal for any web application; however, since these are RGB renderings of the DTM (not actual elevation values), they are unsuitable for analysis.

One of the advantages of these products over the source DTM is that they are lower in data volume, enabling them to display faster. For example, the hillshade image service has a smaller bit depth (8 bit) than the DTM (32 bit) and can also be compressed using JPEG. Therefore, if you want to use the image service in a visual capacity and not for processing, it's faster to transmit the smaller bit-depth data. Also, if you transmit the source elevation data, your application still needs to process it to create the hillshade layer, which increases the time it takes to display.

The world elevation services provide access to visualizations such as hillshade, multidirectional hillshade, elevation-tinted hillshade, and slope to provide context to your work.

Analysis

The World Elevation services also provide layers for analytical purposes and orthorectification. The layers for analysis include the DTM as well as Slope Degrees, Slope Percent, and Aspect.

Note:

When using these image services in geoprocessing tools, use the Make Image Server Layer tool to define some of the properties of the image service, such as the extent and band number. The size of the output layer is limited to 24,000 by 24,000 pixels. To learn more, see Using mosaic datasets and image services in geoprocessing tools.

Image services

These image services are available on ArcGIS Online. You access them by connecting to the Terrain or TopoBathy service and selecting one of the server raster functions to output the other elevation-based products. These products generate on the fly, so you’ll see the outputs immediately. For more information, see the ArcGIS Online Elevation Layers GroupElevation Layers group on ArcGIS.com.

NameDescriptionFor visualizationFor analysis

Terrain

Displays ground surface heights, based on a digital terrain model from multiple sources. The sea level is set to 0 and water bodies that are above sea level have approximated nominal water heights.

No

Yes

TopoBathy

Combines topography and bathymetry (water depths) to show both elevation and the ocean floor. Heights are based on multiple sources

No

Yes

Hillshade

Displays a hypothetical illumination of the terrain where the sun is shining from the northwest (azimuth of 315 degrees) at an altitude of 45 degrees.

Yes

No

Elevation Tinted Hillshade

Displays a map where elevation is fused with hillshade and transitions smoothly from green (low elevations) to brown (low medium to higher elevations) to white (peaks).

Yes

No

Multi-Directional Hillshade

Displays a hypothetical illumination of the terrain by computing hillshade from six different directions. This hillshade offers a higher degree of detail than the traditional hillshade which uses only one illumination source.

Yes

No

Ellipsoidal Height

Applies a geoid model (EGM2008) to orthometric heights from the Terrain layer. This can be used for orthorectification.

No

Yes

Aspect Map

Applies a colormap to the Aspect layer.

Yes

No

Aspect

Displays the orientation of downward sloping terrain in degrees (0 to 359.9), clockwise from north. Cells in the input raster that are flat with zero slope are assigned an aspect of -1.

No

Yes

Slope Map

Applies a colormap to the Slope layer.

Yes

No

Slope Degrees

Calculates the steepness of changes in elevation from the Terrain layer. The values are integer and represent the angle of the downward sloping terrain (0 to 90 degrees).

No

Yes

Slope Percent

Calculates the steepness of changes in elevation from the Terrain layer. The values represent the angle of downward-sloping terrain, measured from 0 to 1,000 percent.

No

Yes

Sources

The source elevation data is composed of the best publicly available elevation data. For more information about the coverage of the World Elevation services,check our Elevation coverage map. This shows the extent and source of the various datasets that make up the World Elevation services.

Organizations can contribute their authoritative high-resolution elevation data through Esri Community Maps for Elevation and become part of the ever growing Living Atlas of the World.

SourcesDataApproximate cell size (m)

www.usgs.gov

NED 2, 1, 1/3, and 1/9 arc-second DEM

62 - 3.1

www.usgs.gov

www.cgiar-csi.org

www.nasa.gov

SRTM DEM

31 - 93

www.usgs.gov

GMTED DEM 7, 5, 15, and 30 arc-second

232, 464, and 928

http://www.ahn.nl/

Netherlands

3

http://www.geoland.at/

Austria

10

http://www.maanmittauslaitos.fi/en/file_download_service

Denmark

3.2 - 10

http://data.kartverket.no/download/content/velkommen

Finland

3 - 10

http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/products/terrain-50.html

Norway

10

http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/products/terrain-50.html

OS Terrain

50

http://www.fema.gov/

FEMA LiDAR DTM

3

http://www.earthenv.org/DEM.html

EarthEnv-DEM90

93

Data sources

Related Topics

  • Key concepts for sharing an image service
  • FAQs for World Elevation services
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