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How to display a DEM well ?

Added by Cynthia Chen over 5 years ago

Hello! Now I am using TerraSAR-X data to produce a DEM. After using a look-up table, I get the DEM in UTM in map coordinates named $output_name.height.utm which is a float binary file. Now I am facing a problem that how to display DEM well. Can I display it by using MATLAB, ArcGIS, GMT or other drawing software? I want to seek some advice. Thank you very much!


Replies (2)

How to display a DEM well ? - Added by Charles Werner over 5 years ago

Hello,

In the gamma software there are tools such as visdt_pwr.py and vispwr.py  that
can display the data very nicely either with a cyclical color table such as jet,
hls, or the terrain.cm color table that will let the DEM look as a terrain map.

You can create a shaded relief intensity background that is nice to view
combined with the heights coded as color using the mapshd program.
The binary intensity (power) image produced by mapshd can then also be used as a
background for displaying other parameters such as correlation and deformation.

#the dem is 6851 samples wide, 30m posting in northing and easting (approximately)
mapshd LA_srtm30.dem 6851 30 30 - - LA_srtm30.shd

#-p - is the option to create a png screenshot, -b creates the color bar
visdt_pwr.py LA_srtm30.dem LA_srtm30.shd 6851 -100. 2500 -m terrain -p - -b

#display with 300m contours
visdt_pwr.py LA_srtm30.dem LA_srtm30.shd 6851 -100. 2500 -m terrain -c 300 -m
jet -s 1.3 -b -p  LA_srtm30_300m_contours.png

If you do not create the png file, then you can click on any point and get the
value, and zoom and pan in to any part of the DEM

Cheers,

Charles

RE: How to display a DEM well ? - Added by Cynthia Chen about 5 years ago

Dear Charles,
Thank you very much for your kindly reply. These days I want to have a try by following your advice, but I meet some new problems about generating the right DEM which I submit new questions on the topic. I want to solve those problems first to make sure I get the correct DEM. Then I will consider how to display it well. Also, hope you can give some suggestions on those problems I met.

Best regards,
Helen

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