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Google Maps Web Application (www.google.com/maps) puts an altitude number in meters at its URL when we are seeing the satellite map. For example, the URL below is equivalent to zoom level 4 at road map and has an altitude of 7759657m:

  • www.google.com/maps/@37.0625,-95.677068,7759657m/data=!3m1!1e3

How does it calculate this altitude?

I tried the Elevation API, but I didn't find any relation with the results of this API. In my tests, I saw that the altitude, on the same zoom level, varies with the latitude, but I didn't find the proportion.

viniciusbraga
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  • well it looks like the satellite altitude. So nothing related to the elevation api which is to do with the ground altitude. Sorry no idea about your actual question. – Ifor Jun 18 '14 at 11:35
  • Yeah, it looks like the satellite altitude, but I have not figured out how Google Maps calculates that. The zoom level of the road map keeps the same when we pan the map, but this altitue varies a lot. In my tests I saw that it varies with the latitude, the DOM size and the resolution or PPI of the screen. – viniciusbraga Jun 19 '14 at 15:15
  • my guess is that it's not calculated but looked up based on other stuff like the zoom level and position – Ifor Jun 19 '14 at 15:29
  • What makes me feel it is calculated it's because the altitude changes even when the browser is offline and if we access the same place in different screens, the number changes too. If you have time, open the new Google Maps in your Firefox, select the satellite mode, change the browser to work offline, make some zoom and pan operations and you will see what I am saying. That's why I think it's calculated, because it's not feasible to download the altitude for all zooms and positions of the planet. – viniciusbraga Jun 20 '14 at 17:06

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