# Elevation Place

Elevation Place is a free browser-based utility for checking current ground elevation, device altitude, coordinates, location accuracy, speed, heading, local conditions, and topographic context worldwide.

Human-readable application: https://elevation.place/

## Readings

- **Ground elevation** is the estimated height of the ground above mean sea level. It is displayed in feet and meters and comes from a terrain model queried with rounded coordinates.
- **Device altitude** is reported by the browser when the device, operating system, and sensor calibration provide it. It may use a different reference surface from the terrain model.
- **Location accuracy** is the browser-reported horizontal uncertainty. Smaller values usually indicate stronger precision.
- **Altitude accuracy** is shown separately when the browser supplies it.
- **Speed and heading** are displayed when browser geolocation or supported orientation sensors provide reliable values. Movement-derived course may fill a heading gap.
- **Session distance and vertical trend** are local estimates calculated from plausible live GPS samples during the current session.

## Location modes

The page starts with approximate Cloudflare network context so it can provide useful regional information without requesting exact GPS coordinates. Precise, continuously updated browser location begins only after permission is granted. If high-accuracy positioning times out or is unavailable, the application retries once with a more compatible lower-power mode.

Location, altitude, speed, and compass availability depend on the visitor's browser, device hardware, operating-system settings, signal quality, and permission choices.

## Accuracy and appropriate use

Elevation Place is not a surveying, aviation, emergency-navigation, or safety-of-life instrument. Terrain models have finite resolution, device altitude can drift, and GPS accuracy changes with environment and hardware. Users should consider the displayed accuracy values and use authoritative instruments or datasets for critical decisions.

## Data sources and resilience

- Ground elevation uses Open-Meteo with Copernicus DEM GLO-90 data, with OpenTopoData Mapzen as a fallback.
- Weather uses Open-Meteo, with MET Norway Locationforecast as a fallback.
- Place labels use BigDataCloud reverse geocoding, with approximate Cloudflare context and recent on-device snapshots as graceful fallbacks.
- The interactive map defaults to OpenTopoMap topographic tiles and can switch to OpenStreetMap street tiles. Tile failures trigger a layer fallback.
- Public API responses are edge-cached with bounded upstream timeouts and stale-cache recovery.

## USGS topographic map archive

The [nationwide map explorer](https://elevation.place/maps) organizes historical USGS maps and US Topo editions by state and quadrangle. Each map page provides a source thumbnail, a browser-rendered GeoPDF preview, an automatic GeoTIFF fallback, original downloads, exact geographic bounds, related editions, and a current OpenTopoMap view of the same area.

The map indexes are immutable private release objects served through the Elevation Place Cloudflare Worker. Original map media remains on authoritative USGS services and is exposed through closed, same-origin record routes with byte-range support and ordered official-source fallbacks.

## Privacy

The initial HTML contains no visitor coordinates. Exact location is requested only through the browser permission flow. Rounded coordinates may be sent through the same-origin Elevation Place Worker for terrain, weather, and place lookups. Recent results may be stored locally on the visitor's device for offline recovery and expire automatically.

## Related resources

- FAQ: https://elevation.place/#faq
- Privacy section: https://elevation.place/#privacy
- LLM overview: https://elevation.place/llms.txt
- Sitemap: https://elevation.place/sitemap.xml
- Topographic maps: https://elevation.place/maps
- PWA manifest: https://elevation.place/manifest.webmanifest