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egm96geoid

Geoid height from Earth Gravitational Model 1996 (EGM96)

Syntaxes of the egm96geoid function that return referencing vectors have been removed. Use a syntax that returns a reference object instead. For more information, see Version History.

Description

N = egm96geoid(lat,lon) returns the height in meters of the geoid at the specified latitude and longitude from the Earth Gravitational Model of 1996 (EGM96). Specify latitude and longitude in degrees.

example

N = egm96geoid(R) returns geoid heights at the cell center or posting locations specified by the geographic postings reference or geographic cells reference object R.

example

[N,globalR] = egm96geoid returns geoid heights for the entire globe as a 721-by-1441 matrix spaced at 15-minute intervals with latitude limits [-90 90] and longitude limits [0 360]. The function also returns a geographic postings reference object that contains spatial referencing information for the geoid heights.

example

Examples

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Find geoid heights from EGM96 by specifying latitude and longitude values in degrees. The result is returned in meters.

lat = 27.988056;
lon = 86.925278;
N = egm96geoid(lat,lon)
N = 
-28.7444

View geoid heights from EGM96 for an area including Europe.

First, create a GeographicPostingsReference object. Specify the latitude and longitude limits of the area in degrees. Specify the raster size as the number of rows and columns for the grid of geoid heights. Then, return the grid of geoid heights for the area by calling egm96geoid on the reference object.

latlim = [35 72];
lonlim = [-12 51];
rasterSize = [100 100];
R = georefpostings(latlim,lonlim,rasterSize);
N = egm96geoid(R);

Note that the size of N matches the raster size of R.

size(N)
ans = 1×2

   100   100

Load coastline latitude and longitude data into the workspace. Then, plot the geoid height and coastline data on a map.

load coastlines

worldmap(latlim,lonlim)
geoshow(N,R,'DisplayType','surface')
geoshow(coastlat,coastlon,'Color','k')

Figure contains an axes object. The hidden axes object contains 11 objects of type patch, surface, line, text.

View geoid heights from EGM96 for the entire globe.

First, return the geoid heights and a referencing object for the globe. The geoid heights are spaced at 15-minute intervals. Load coastline latitude and longitude data into the workspace. Then, plot the geoid heights and coastline data on a world map.

[N,R] = egm96geoid;
load coastlines

worldmap('World')
geoshow(N,R,'DisplayType','surface')
geoshow(coastlat,coastlon,'Color','k')

Figure contains an axes object. The hidden axes object contains 19 objects of type patch, surface, line, text.

Input Arguments

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Latitude in degrees, specified as a scalar, vector, or matrix. The dimension of lat depends on the dimension of the geoid heights you want to find.

  • To find a single geoid height, specify lat and lon as scalars.

  • To find several geoid heights, specify lat and lon as vectors of the same length.

  • To find a p-by-q grid of geoid heights, specify lat and lon as p-by-q matrices.

Data Types: single | double

Longitude in degrees, specified as a scalar, vector, or matrix. The dimension of lon depends on the dimension of the geoid heights you want to find.

  • To find a single geoid height, specify lat and lon as scalars.

  • To find several geoid heights, specify lat and lon as vectors of the same length.

  • To find a p-by-q grid of geoid heights, specify lat and lon as p-by-q matrices.

Data Types: single | double

Geographic reference, specified as a GeographicPostingsReference object or a GeographicCellsReference object that contains geospatial referencing information for N. The RasterSize property of the geographic reference object determines the size of the data grid, size(N).

Output Arguments

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Geoid height in meters, returned as a scalar, vector, or matrix.

The size of N depends on the syntax:

SyntaxSize of N
N = egm96geoid(lat,lon)Size of lat and lon
N = egm96geoid(R)R.RasterSize
[N,globalR] = egm96geoid721-by-1441 matrix

Data Types: double

Geographic reference, returned as a GeographicPostingsReference object of size 721-by-1441 with latitude limits [-90 90] and longitude limits [0 360].

More About

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Earth Gravitational Model of 1996 (EGM96)

The geoid is an equipotential surface of the Earth's gravity field that approximates global mean sea level. You can visualize the geoid as the surface of the ocean without effects such as weather, waves, and land. The Earth Gravitational Model of 1996 (EGM96) is based on the ellipsoid specified by the World Geodetic System of 1984 (WGS84), so the egm96geoid function returns heights above or below the surface of the WGS84 ellipsoid.

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

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