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Does anyone know, what are the measurement units of Google Elevation Api? Are those meters? feets?

The google elevation api documentation is not saying anything on that.

Thanks!

Mark McDonald
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vyakhir
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2 Answers2

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The elevation is in meters. The API documentation is clear - just read it more carefully.

  • The units are clear, but the datum is not explicitly stated in the documentation. Based on sample values returned and comments on the Internet, the elevations returned in the Google Elevation API are relative to mean sea level (MSL). Most GPS units return height above ellipsoid (HAE). See http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0703/geoid1of3.html for discussion of the difference. – Robert Calhoun Jun 16 '15 at 14:41
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The vertical datum for the elevation data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) is EGM96 (Earth Gravitational Model 1996) ellipsoid.

The elevation datum from the Google Elevation API is not stated in the documentation as Robert pointed out. I have seen projects related to sea water intrusion where knowledge about the vertical datum is important as a few feet of differences in the measurement can be critical.

Eric Chiang
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