Wow. Just…wow.

Google has released an elevation web service and ElevationService for Maps API v3. Basically you can send it a latlon or a series of latlon’s and it’ll give you the elevations. Or you can send it a path and it’ll send you an elevation profile for that path.

I just sent Google a two point path requesting 3 samples (the two end points plus three points in between) for an area in downtown Charlotte.

[sourcecode language=’text’]

http://maps.google.com/maps/api/elevation/json?path=35.23179,-80.83782|35.22849,-80.84404&samples=3&sensor=false

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And Google sent me back this:

[sourcecode language='javascript']

{ "status": "OK", "results": [ { "location": { "lat": 35.2317900, "lng": -80.8378200 }, "elevation": 228.9746857 }, { "location": { "lat": 35.2301400, "lng": -80.8409301 }, "elevation": 229.5840912 }, { "location": { "lat": 35.2284900, "lng": -80.8440400 }, "elevation": 232.6439056 } ] }

Which I could easily pass to Google Charts or to any charting software to plot an elevation profile. You can view the web service docs here.

Just…..wow.