compute elevation profile for location that is NOT Korea

I am following the instructions at http://www.mathworks.com/help/map/data-grid-values-along-a-path.html to make an elevation cross section plot. If I try and load any location besides Korea (I tried various country names) I get an error. What are the choices of countries I can load? How can I repeat this example for another location or build an elevation data mat file for another location? I have the mapping toolbox.

My location of interest is California.

Answer 1

[Sean de Wolski]

Korea is shipped as an example data set and even that should not be used for anything other than an example.

If you don't have DEM files, I would recommend starting with wmsfind. There are many layers out there that contain DEM data. Once you find one for your location, use wmsread to pull in the data. In general, getting data is the hardest part.

Here's an example for New Hampshire, USA:

latlim = [44.1645 44.4216];
lonlim = [-71.4608 -71.2267];
nasaLayers = wmsfind('nasa*elev', 'SearchField', 'serverurl');
ned = refine(nasaLayers, 'usgs_ned');
[Z, refmatZ] = wmsread(ned, 'Latlim', latlim, 'Lonlim', lonlim);
Z = double(Z);

%%Contour map
% Use the data from NASA to build a contour map
%

% Build figure, map, and contour
figure
usamap(latlim, lonlim)
contourm(Z, refmatZ, 20, 'Color', 'k')