Elevation: OpenTopoData / Mapzen — sources and licenses

The Field2Sim elevation proxy uses the free OpenTopoData service and its Mapzen dataset. The provider documents Mapzen v1.1, downloaded in May 2020. Responses do not independently attest to the version.

Mapzen combines multiple sources with different licenses. It is not a single-license or wholly public-domain dataset. The source-dependent elevations are in metres, with bilinear interpolation requested. No geoid or ellipsoidal conversion is performed. About 30 m grid spacing does not guarantee uniform source resolution or vertical accuracy.

These notices are preserved from Joerd attribution; see also the source descriptions. Documents checked on 2026-09-09. Their commit is fixed here, but correspondence between this documentation and every source in OpenTopoData's May 2020 snapshot cannot be independently established. The API does not identify the source raster for each point.

• ArcticDEM terrain data DEM(s) were created from DigitalGlobe, Inc., imagery and funded under National Science Foundation awards 1043681, 1559691, and 1542736; ArcticDEM source and terms.
• Australia terrain data © Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2017; CC BY 4.0.
• Austria terrain data © offene Daten Österreichs – Digitales Geländemodell (DGM) Österreich; CC BY 3.0 Austria.
• Canada terrain data contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
• Europe terrain data produced using Copernicus data and information funded by the European Union - EU-DEM layers; EU-DEM source and terms. This is distinct from Copernicus GLO-30.
• Global ETOPO1 terrain data U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce. ETOPO1, NOAA disclaimer. U.S. Government material is not subject to copyright protection within the United States. Not for navigation; no warranty.
• Mexico terrain data source: INEGI, Continental relief, 2016; INEGI terms.
• New Zealand terrain data Copyright 2011 Crown copyright (c) Land Information New Zealand and the New Zealand Government (All rights reserved); CC BY 3.0 New Zealand.
• Norway terrain data © Kartverket; CC BY 4.0.
• United Kingdom terrain data © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2015. All rights reserved; Open Government Licence v3.
• United States 3DEP (formerly NED) and global GMTED2010 and SRTM terrain data courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey. 3DEP, GMTED2010, SRTM, USGS credits and terms.

Processing: Mapzen merges/resamples its sources; this service requests bilinear point sampling from OpenTopoData and caches the resulting numbers without a vertical datum transformation. These services and data providers do not endorse Field2Sim. Data are provided without a guarantee of fitness or accuracy. Source-specific terms and disclaimers remain applicable.

Joerd's Skadi format documentation describes WGS84/EGM96 geoid-referenced metres. This is not WGS84 ellipsoidal height. Given mixed input sources and lack of per-point provenance, this API conservatively labels the vertical reference source-dependent.

Software licenses are separate from data licenses. Installed packages preserve Python's PSF license, Flask/Werkzeug/Jinja/MarkupSafe/ItsDangerous/Click BSD notices, Blinker MIT notice, and Waitress ZPL-2.1 license.

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