Terrain Reporting

module load terrain

The terrain module passes downloads and manages DTEM (Digital Terrain Elevation Model) datasets and adds terrain height functionality to the map module. It also allows the autopilot to download terrain data of the surrounding area so that it has an approximate idea of its height above ground.

By default, it uses the freely available SRTM dataset. For the purposes of this module, a copy of this dataset is hosted here Level 3 resolution (90m) is used.

Whilst this module does require an Internet connection to download the nearby SRTM tiles, it will cache them on the local hard drive for offline use.

Once loaded with module load terrain, the module will automatically download, cache and send small SRTM tiles to the autopilot’s internal memory (the SD card on the autopilot, for example).

The status of the module can be shown by entering terrain status.

To get the terrain height at a particular location, use terrain check <lat> <lon>` or right click on the map (module must be loaded to display)

To use higher resolution SRTM data, a Level 1 dataset is available. Use terrain set source SRTM1 to use. To go back to the Level 3 dataset, use terrain set source SRTM3

In addition, you can prevent the downloading of tiles from the Internet for testing purposes, using the following command to disable it:

terrain set offline 1