PANORAMIC MAPS

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DIGITAL RASTER MAPPING

This can be supplied for much of the world. Prices for non-commercial use are based on media and reproduction costs, currently set at £5 per CD(670MB), £10 per DVD(4GB), plus p&p and adminstration. As a guide, the 1:200,000 sets run to a total of about about 40GB. 

  • 1:100,000 Europe (excluding former USSR), Japan coverage map
  • 1:200,000 Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa except some equatorial areas coverage map
  • 1:500,000 Latin America, Equatorial areas missing from 1:200,000 coverage map
  • 1:250,000 United States of America, Canada and Australia coverage map. Not available for distribution. 

The coverage maps show available inland areas in blue and coastal areas in red. Other areas will become available when I have sorted and referenced more of my digital map inventory. My thanks to Trond Nesøen of Fredrikstad, Norway for creating these maps.

The above sets are available in indivisible 6 x 4 degree folders. The file sizes, which are small enough to allow legible A4 printing, vary; for the 1:200,000 set it is 30'x20', i.e. 12x12=144 files per block. Other than the USA, the sets are based on Soviet military mapping and are in Russian. A guide to the Russian alphabet is supplied. Software to enable smooth scrolling between files, including across UTM boundaries, and interact with the DEMs (see below), is also available, but may not be easy to use.

More information: maps and folders software.

Sample downloads:

Other sets, including the USA at 1:24,000 and 1:100,000, Canada/Australia at 1:250,000 may be available to non-commercial users on a limited basis but these sets are subject to copyright restrictions.

DIGITAL ELEVATION MODELS

These are matrices of 16-bit elevations, in metres relative to sea level. The following sets are available:

  • SRTM3 Global, other than north of 60.35 N or south of 56 S. Resolution 3 arc seconds (about 90 meters). Source: NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. There are some no-data areas. The overall incidence of these is about 1 cell in 600, but increases in desert, canyon and, sadly, mountain areas. Patches for these areas, derived from accurate alternative sources (NOT astra, gtopo30 or globe30) are under development and are already available for much of the Himalayas, including areas surrounding all 8000m summits and most 7000m summits.
  • North America 3 Covers USA and Canada complete. Resolution 3 arc seconds. There are no no-data areas. Sources: NED, from US 1:24,000 mapping (USA48), 1:63,360(Alaska); Canadian and Yukon NTDB, from 1:50,000 topos (Canadian Rockies), 1:250,000 topos (NWT and Nunavut), SRTM3 (rest of Canada).
  • US NED Covers the entire USA. Source: USGS NED. Resolution 1" (USA48 & Hawaii), 2" (Alaska).
  • Canadian NTDB Covers most of British Columbia. Source: Canadian 1:50,000 topos. Resolution 0.75".
  • Europe 1 Covers most of Western Europe, including all of the Alps, Pyrenees, Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, France and Germany. Resolution 1 arc second. Main source Russian 1:100,000 topos, but with some input from more accurate sources in areas of high relief. There are no no-data areas.
  • GLOBE30 Global. Resolution 30 arc seconds. The quality is variable and in some places very poor. Creates a useful overview but I do not use or recommend this for panorama or prominence work or the patching of SRTM no-data areas.

DEM Downloads . Download 1°x1° tiles in SRTM format. Contain 1201x1201 16-bit elevation cells, resolution 3". Similar to SRTM but with no-data areas filled from other sources.

GAZETTEERS

Global, detail compatible with 1:250,000 or better, but in some areas accuracy is no better than about 1km. Available in 6x4 degree blocks. Based on USGS GNIS. Global file size approx 900MB.

A complete gazetteer of over 20,000 summits in the Alps, including accurate coordinates and elevations, can be downloaded here. Documentation for the fields used in this file can be downloaded here.

Special gazetteers, ranking mountain summits in order of prominence, i.e. drop separating them from higher summits, can be downloaded here.