The Elevation API is a service that returns elevation data for
a location on the earth, or sampled elevation data along paths.
Why use the Elevation API
With the Elevation API, you can develop applications to support your
customers with elevation-sensitive activities, positioning applications, or low-surveying
applications that include elevations and elevation changes along routes. For example,
you can provide elevation gain and loss data to enhance a sports application for activities such
as hiking, biking, or scuba diving.
What you can do with the Elevation API
With the Elevation API, you can include elevation data in your
applications or on a map. For example:
- Get the
elevation
for a particular place.
- Calculate the
differences
in elevation along a route or between two
points.
How the Elevation API works
The Elevation API accepts a request as an encoded URL with latitude/longitude coordinates
provided as either discrete locations, or as a series of locations along a path. This request,
for example, queries elevation for the center of Denver, Colorado, specifying a return in JSON format.
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/elevation/json
?locations=39.7391536%2C-104.9847034
&key=
YOUR_API_KEY
The service derives the elevation for the provided coordinates. It also interpolates
elevation for a location without elevation, providing an average returned from the four
nearest locations that do provide elevation data. Finally, it determines the overall
resolution for the location.
Resources
The following table summarizes the resources available through the
Elevation API along with the data it returns.
Data resources
|
Data returned
|
Return format
|
Latitude/longitude coordinates
You can provide data as a set of one or more locations, or as a series along a path. You
can also provide encoded coordinates. Pass up to 512 coordinates.
|
The Elevation API provides
elevation in meters
relative
to the
local mean sea level
(LMSL). Elevation can be returned as positive
or negative values as indicated below:
- Positive values
indicate locations above LMSL,
including surface locations or the bottom of high-altitude lakes.
- Negative values
indicate locations that are below LMSL, including
locations on the surface or the ocean floor.
- Resolution
indicates the distance between the data point and the
elevation, in meters.
|
|
How to use the Elevation API
1
|
Get set up.
|
Start with
Set up your
Google Cloud project
and complete the setup
instructions that follow.
|
2
|
Try an elevation request
|
Once you have an API key, you can start testing out the Elevation API directly from
your browser. See
Sample requests
in the
Getting started
guide for details.
|
3
|
Compose a more complex request
|
Once you are set up with a project, try a request that supplies a location data along a
path. See
Specifying paths
for details.
|
4
|
Understand response basics
|
Explore the elevation data responses to prepare to use elevation data for your app. See
Elevation responses
for details.
|
5
|
Incorporate elevation data into your own app!
|
You can use elevation data to enhance location-based apps, such as apps for sports
activities or for survey data.
|
Available client libraries
Call this API in the language of
your choice through one of the following client libraries:
The Java Client, Python Client, Go Client and Node.js Client for Google Maps
Services are community-supported client libraries, open sourced under the
Apache 2.0 License
.
Download them from GitHub, where you can also find installation instructions and sample code.
What's next