What’s the difference between Altitude and Elevation?

Altitude and elevation are often used interchangeably but there are differences between the two. IKE uses “altitude” in both IKE Field and IKE Office.

• Elevation
  • The vertical distance of a point above or below a selected reference plane, such as the local ground level. Elevation is often used to describe points on the Earth's surface, such as the top of a hill.
• Altitude
  • The vertical distance of a point above the land. Altitude is often used to describe points above the Earth's surface, such as an aircraft in flight or a spacecraft in orbit.

When & where is altitude captured?

• Altitude is captured when the location field is used on a form while working in IKE Field on an IKE Device
• The altitude value is displayed in IKE Field and in IKE Office after upload

Is the altitude of the IKE device OR of the altitude of the pole?

How altitude is measured depends on if the location was taken using a local point OR a target location using the location measurement tool in IKE Field.

Local Point Location (target icon)

• This is most accurate and uses the location of the IKE Device
• Typically the IKE is held to the pole when a local point location is taken
• Antenna Height
  • After you’ve taken a local point location you have the option to enter a value
  • You can enter the height of your device when it’s on the tripod
    • With full extension of all tripod legs, the tripod is at 4’ 4”. 
  • This value will automatically populate on all subsequent poles
• IKE Altitude
  • This is the altitude of the IKE device when the local point location was taken
• Ground Altitude
  • This is intended to be the base of the pole

• • This will be the same value as the IKE Altitude until you’ve entered a value for the Antenna Height
  • Once an Antenna Height is entered that value will be subtracted from the IKE Altitude value to reflect the base of the pole altitude indicated in the Ground Altitude

Target Location (camera icon)

• This uses the laser rangefinder to identify the location of a pole when access to the pole is problematic
• The coordinates of the pole are calculated using the location of the device, compass and distance to target
• The location and altitude will be recorded as where the laser is hitting
• If you want the altitude of the pole base, point the laser at the base

Once the pole is uploaded to IKE Office where do I find the altitude information?

• In IKE Office click on a pole then click the “i” next to the location field
• IF a local point location was used all altitude fields will be shown in IKE Office

• IF a target location was used only the altitude of the laser target will be shown

Can you change how the altitude value is displayed?

• Altitude values are displayed according to your user setting in IKE Field and IKE Office
  • How do I switch to Metric? – ikeGPS Support
• The Altitude value below the Latitude and Longitude in IKE Office will reference the Ground Altitude

Can I export this altitude data to another application outside of IKE Office?

• Yes - various formats are available
  • IKE Office Data Exports – ikeGPS Support
• When exporting to Excel you will see two columns
  • <Label>.altitude
    • This is the Ground Altitude in meters
  • <Label>.altitude.display
    • This will show you the Ground Altitude value in the unit of measurement you have configured in your user settings

What geospatial model is used for altitude?

• For information on datums see this tutorial: https://vdatum.noaa.gov/docs/datums.html 
• IF you’re using RTK (IKE+ Devices only) the altitude will be in the datum the network is broadcasting
  • Most RTK networks in North America will be using NAD83
  • IKE Office Pro customers that require their altitude collected with RTK to be converted from NAD83 to NAVD88 vertical datum can request this to be applied to their data. The converted values are available in the Excel export.

• IF you’re using standard GPS the elevation will be in WGS84