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GEOIDEVAL(1)		     GeographicLib Utilities		    GEOIDEVAL(1)

NAME
     GeoidEval -- look up geoid heights

SYNOPSIS
     GeoidEval [ -n name ] [ -d dir ] [ -l ] [ -a | -c south west north east ] [
     -w ] [ -z zone ] [ --msltohae ] [ --haetomsl ] [ -v ] [ --comment-delimiter
     commentdelim  ]  [  --version | -h | --help ] [ --input-file infile | --in-
     put-string instring ] [ --line-separator linesep ] [ --output-file  outfile
     ]

DESCRIPTION
     GeoidEval	reads  in  positions on standard input and prints out the corre-
     sponding heights of the geoid model above the WGS84 ellipsoid  on	standard
     output.

     Positions	are given as latitude and longitude, UTM/UPS, or MGRS, in any of
     the formats accepted by GeoConvert(1).  (MGRS coordinates signify the  cen-
     ter  of the corresponding MGRS square.)  If the -z option is specified then
     the specified zone is prepended to each line of input  (which  must  be  in
     UTM/UPS  coordinates).   This allows a file with UTM eastings and northings
     in a single zone to be used as standard input.

     More accurate results for the geoid  height  are  provided  by  Gravity(1).
     This utility can also compute the direction of gravity accurately.

     The  height  of  the  geoid above the ellipsoid, N, is sometimes called the
     geoid undulation.	It can be used to convert a height above the  ellipsoid,
     h,  to  the  corresponding  height above the geoid (the orthometric height,
     roughly the height above mean sea level), H, using the relations

	 h = N + H,   H = -N + h.

OPTIONS
     -n name
	 use name for the geoid model instead of  the  default	"egm96-5".   See
	 "GEOIDS".

     -d dir
	 read geoid data from dir instead of the default.  See "GEOIDS".

     -l  use bilinear interpolation instead of cubic.  See "INTERPOLATION".

     -a  cache the entire data set in memory.  See "CACHE".

     -c south west north east
	 cache	the  data bounded by south west north east in memory.  The first
	 two arguments specify the SW corner of the cache and the last two argu-
	 ments specify the NE corner.  The -w flag specifies that longitude pre-
	 cedes latitude for these corners, provided that it appears  before  -c.
	 See "CACHE".

     -w  toggle  the  longitude  first	flag (it starts off); if the flag is on,
	 then when reading geographic coordinates, longitude  precedes	latitude
	 (this can be overridden by a hemisphere designator, N, S, E, W).

     -z zone
	 prefix  each  line  of input by zone, e.g., "38n".  This should be used
	 when the input consists of UTM/UPS eastings and northings.

     --msltohae
	 standard input should include a final	token  on  each  line  which  is
	 treated  as  a height (in meters) above the geoid and the output echoes
	 the input line with the height  converted  to	height	above  ellipsoid
	 (HAE).   If -z zone is specified then the third token is treated as the
	 height; this makes it possible to convert LIDAR data  where  each  line
	 consists of: easting northing height intensity.

     --haetomsl
	 this  is  similar to --msltohae except that the height token is treated
	 as a height (in meters) above the ellipsoid and the output  echoes  the
	 input line with the height converted to height above the geoid (MSL).

     -v  print	information  about the geoid model on standard error before pro-
	 cessing the input.

     --comment-delimiter commentdelim
	 set the comment delimiter to commentdelim (e.g., "#" or "//").  If set,
	 the input lines will be scanned for this delimiter and, if  found,  the
	 delimiter  and the rest of the line will be removed prior to processing
	 and subsequently appended to the output line (separated by a space).

     --version
	 print version and exit.

     -h  print usage, the default path and name for geoid models, and exit.

     --help
	 print full documentation and exit.

     --input-file infile
	 read input from the file infile instead of from standard input; a  file
	 name of "-" stands for standard input.

     --input-string instring
	 read  input  from  the  string instring instead of from standard input.
	 All occurrences of the line separator character  (default  is	a  semi-
	 colon) in instring are converted to newlines before the reading begins.

     --line-separator linesep
	 set  the  line  separator  character  to linesep.  By default this is a
	 semicolon.

     --output-file outfile
	 write output to the file outfile instead of to standard output; a  file
	 name of "-" stands for standard output.

GEOIDS
     GeoidEval	computes  geoid  heights by interpolating on the data in a regu-
     larly spaced table (see "INTERPOLATION").	The following  geoid  grids  are
     available (however, some may not be installed):

				       bilinear error	 cubic error
	name	     geoid    grid     max	rms	 max	  rms
	egm84-30     EGM84    30'      1.546 m	70 mm	 0.274 m  14 mm
	egm84-15     EGM84    15'      0.413 m	18 mm	 0.021 m  1.2 mm
	egm96-15     EGM96    15'      1.152 m	40 mm	 0.169 m  7.0 mm
	egm96-5      EGM96     5'      0.140 m	4.6 mm	 .0032 m  0.7 mm
	egm2008-5    EGM2008   5'      0.478 m	12 mm	 0.294 m  4.5 mm
	egm2008-2_5  EGM2008   2.5'    0.135 m	3.2 mm	 0.031 m  0.8 mm
	egm2008-1    EGM2008   1'      0.025 m	0.8 mm	 .0022 m  0.7 mm

     By default, the "egm96-5" geoid model is used.  This may changed by setting
     the  environment variable "GEOGRAPHICLIB_GEOID_NAME" or with the -n option.
     The errors listed here are estimates of the quantization and  interpolation
     errors in the reported heights compared to the specified geoid.

     The  geoid  model data will be loaded from a directory specified at compile
     time.  This may changed by setting the  environment  variables  "GEOGRAPHI-
     CLIB_GEOID_PATH"  or  "GEOGRAPHICLIB_DATA",  or with the -d option.  The -h
     option prints the default geoid path and name.  Use the -v option to ascer-
     tain the full path name of the data file.

     Instructions for downloading and installing geoid	data  are  available  at
     <https://geographiclib.sourceforge.io/C++/doc/geoid.html#geoidinst>.

     NOTE: all the geoids above apply to the WGS84 ellipsoid (a = 6378137 m, f =
     1/298.257223563) only.

INTERPOLATION
     Cubic interpolation is used to compute the geoid height unless -l is speci-
     fied in which case bilinear interpolation is used.  The cubic interpolation
     is based on a least-squares fit of a cubic polynomial to a 12-point stencil

	. 1 1 .
	1 2 2 1
	1 2 2 1
	. 1 1 .

     The cubic is constrained to be independent of longitude when evaluating the
     height at one of the poles.  Cubic interpolation is considerably more accu-
     rate  than bilinear; however it results in small discontinuities in the re-
     turned height on cell boundaries.

CACHE
     By default, the data file is randomly read to compute the geoid heights  at
     the  input  positions.  Usually this is sufficient for interactive use.  If
     many heights are to be computed, use -c south west  north	east  to  notify
     GeoidEval	to read a rectangle of data into memory; heights within the this
     rectangle can then be computed without any disk access.  If -a is specified
     all the geoid data is read; in the case of "egm2008-1", this requires about
     0.5 GB of RAM.  The evaluation of heights outside the  cached  area  causes
     the  necessary  data to be read from disk.  Use the -v option to verify the
     size of the cache.

     Regardless of whether any cache is requested (with the -a or  -c  options),
     the  data	for  the last grid cell in cached.  This allows the geoid height
     along a continuous path to be returned with little disk overhead.

ENVIRONMENT
     GEOGRAPHICLIB_GEOID_NAME
	 Override the compile-time default geoid name of "egm96-5".  The -h  op-
	 tion  reports the value of GEOGRAPHICLIB_GEOID_NAME, if defined, other-
	 wise it reports the compile-time value.  If the -n name option is used,
	 then name takes precedence.

     GEOGRAPHICLIB_GEOID_PATH
	 Override the  compile-time  default  geoid  path.   This  is  typically
	 "/usr/local/share/GeographicLib/geoids"   on	Unix-like   systems  and
	 "C:/ProgramData/GeographicLib/geoids" on Windows systems.  The  -h  op-
	 tion  reports the value of GEOGRAPHICLIB_GEOID_PATH, if defined, other-
	 wise it reports the compile-time value.  If the -d dir option is  used,
	 then dir takes precedence.

     GEOGRAPHICLIB_DATA
	 Another  way  of overriding the compile-time default geoid path.  If it
	 is set (and if GEOGRAPHICLIB_GEOID_PATH is not set),  then  $GEOGRAPHI-
	 CLIB_DATA/geoids is used.

ERRORS
     An illegal line of input will print an error message to standard output be-
     ginning  with  "ERROR:"  and  causes GeoidEval to return an exit code of 1.
     However, an error does not cause GeoidEval to  terminate;	following  lines
     will be converted.

ABBREVIATIONS
     The  geoid  is usually approximated by an "earth gravity model". The models
     published by the NGA are:

     EGM84
	 An   earth   gravity	model	published   by	 the   NGA   in    1984,
	 <https://earth-info.nga.mil/index.php?dir=wgs84&ac-
	 tion=wgs84#tab_egm84>.

     EGM96
	 An    earth   gravity	 model	 published   by   the	NGA   in   1996,
	 <https://earth-info.nga.mil/index.php?dir=wgs84&ac-
	 tion=wgs84#tab_egm96>.

     EGM2008
	 An   earth   gravity	model	published   by	 the   NGA   in    2008,
	 <https://earth-info.nga.mil/index.php?dir=wgs84&ac-
	 tion=wgs84#tab_egm2008>.

     WGS84
	 World Geodetic System 1984, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WGS84>.

     HAE Height above the WGS84 ellipsoid.

     MSL Mean  sea  level, used as a convenient short hand for the geoid.  (How-
	 ever, typically, the geoid differs  by  a  few  meters  from  mean  sea
	 level.)

EXAMPLES
     The height of the EGM96 geoid at Timbuktu

	 echo 16:46:33N 3:00:34W | GeoidEval
	 => 28.7068 -0.02e-6 -1.73e-6

     The  first  number  returned is the height of the geoid and the 2nd and 3rd
     are its slopes in the northerly and easterly directions.

     Convert a point in UTM zone 18n from MSL to HAE

	echo 531595 4468135 23 | GeoidEval --msltohae -z 18n
	=> 531595 4468135 -10.842

SEE ALSO
     GeoConvert(1), Gravity(1), geographiclib-get-geoids(8).

     An online version of this	utility  is  availbable  at  <https://geographi-
     clib.sourceforge.io/cgi-bin/GeoidEval>.

AUTHOR
     GeoidEval was written by Charles Karney.

HISTORY
     GeoidEval	 was   added  to  GeographicLib,  <https://geographiclib.source-
     forge.io>, in 2009-09.

GeographicLib 2.2		   2022-12-13			    GEOIDEVAL(1)

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