pyhigh

pyhigh is a Python package for accessing elevation data, which is retrieved from a USGS dataset. The package uses caching to avoid unecessary downloads from the USGS dataset, but please respect their download policies.

Installation

> pip install pyhigh

Usage

Command-line utility

The pyhigh Python package includes a command-line tool of the same name to retreive the elevation at a particular latitude and longitude:

> pyhigh --lat 36.52011 --lon -118.671
1884

As necessary, files will be download from a USGS dataset and cache in the folder pyhigh/pyhigh/.cache. To clear this cache, use the --clean argument:

> pyhigh --clean

Python API

The get_elevation function returns the elevation, in meters, at the given latitude and longitude.

>>> from pyhigh import get_elevation
>>> get_elevation(lat=36.52011, lon=-118.671)
1884

It is also possible to request a bunch elevations for a bunch of latitudes and longitudes at once. The result returned is a NumPy array of elevations.

>>> from pyhigh import get_elevation_batch
>>> get_elevation_batch([(36.52011, -118.671),
...                      (36.62011, -118.771)])
array([1884., 2438.])

This is more efficient than individual calls to get_elevation because elevation reads are pooled together to avoid reading the same *.hgt file multiple times.

Finally, the pyhigh cache of *.hgt files can be cleared with the API function clear_cache:

>>> from pyhigh import clear_cache
>>> clear_cache()