usgsdems

USGS 1-degree (3-arc-sec) DEM file names for latitude-longitude quadrangle

Syntax

[fname,qname] = usgsdems(latlim,lonlim)

Description

[fname,qname] = usgsdems(latlim,lonlim) returns cell arrays of the DEM file names and quadrangle names covering the geographic region. The region is specified by scalar latitude and longitude points or two-element vectors of latitude and longitude limits in units of degrees.

Background

The U.S. Geological Survey has made available a set of digital elevation maps of 1-degree quadrangles covering the contiguous United States, Hawaii, and limited portions of Alaska. These are referred to as 1-degree, 3-arc second or 1:250,000 scale DEMs. Because the file names of these 1 degree data sets are taken from the names of cities or features in the quadrangle, determining the files needed to cover a particular region generally requires consulting an index map or other reference. This function takes the place of such a reference by returning the file names for a given geographic region.

Examples

Which files are needed to map part of New England?

usgsdems([41 44], [-72 -69])

ans = 
    'providence-w'
    'providence-e'
    'chatham-w'
    'boston-w'
    'boston-e'
    'portland-w'
    'portland-e'
    'bath-w'

Tips

This function only returns file names for the contiguous United States.

Version History

Introduced before R2006a