Effective Use of Digital Elevation Models to Procure Ground Elevations

A study was performed at Wichita State University to identify the most efficient approach to acquire ground elevations for large numbers of flight data files. The investigation generalized analysis by using random points generated within limited polygon bounds of the United States and the state of California. Additionally, an example flight was also tested to qualify results. Two primary methods were tested and assessed for their efficiency: Standard Application Processing Interface and Digital Elevations Models. The results were collected based on total time for files and time per query and were shown to compare favorably to the existing method for collecting ground elevations for flight data.