---
title: "Earth and maps | Nexus Observatory"
description: "A real elevation model of the Bow Valley at Lake Louise, Alberta, read the way geospatial pipelines read the planet: relief, light, line of sight…"
url: https://observatory.global/earth/
publisher: Nexus Observatory Inc.
updated: 2026-10-28
---

**Sun** · 315° · 40°

**Mast** · 30 m

**01** · Elevation model *· ASTER GDEM v3* 

**02** · Hillshade *· computed* 

**03** · Contours *· computed* 

**04** · Land cover *· undefined* 

**05** · Stations *· 3 in the tile* 

**06** · AI layer *· simulated* 

51.6094° N · 116.4375° W

51.1875° N · 116.0156° W

**3,469 m** *· highest cell* 

**Bow River At Lake Louise** *· ECCC* **Pipestone River Near Lake Louise** *· ECCC* **Weather station** *· NOAA ISD* 

01

02

03

04

05

06

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Elevation: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team, ASTER GDEM v3 (via NASA GIBS) — repository terrain extract, decoded and smoothed.

Earth observation & GeoAI · Showcase

Interactive

# One valley, seven ways of seeing it.

A real elevation model of the Bow Valley at Lake Louise, Alberta, read the way geospatial pipelines read the planet: relief, light, line of sight, an orbit swath, a GeoAI pass, a geodesic grid and a registered stack.

**Tile**: 29.4 × 46.9 km
**Relief**: 1,293–3,469 m
**Samples**: 1,048,576
**Resolution**: 31 m

**01** Elevation

**02** Light and slope

**03** Viewshed

**04** Satellite pass

**05** GeoAI

**06** Geodesic grid

**07** Layers

**01** · Elevation

## Relief, measured.

The elevation grid as a hidden-line mesh. Contours are traced by marching squares; every fifth is an index contour. Hover the terrain to read a height and trace its contour in red.

Steps: 20 · 25 · 40 · 50 · 100 · 200 m. Index contour every 5th line.

**Contour levels drawn**: 44
**Contour length**: 10,790 km
**Under the cursor**: hover the terrain

**02** · Light and slope

## Hillshade and slope, one gradient.

Hillshade and slope come from the elevation gradient at every pixel, drawn as line work: a line screen for light, cross-hatching for steepness, or illuminated contours.

Rendering

N

E

S

W

Sun azimuth

Drag the dial, or focus it and use the arrow keys.

Slope classes, share of the tile

0–10°

23.8 %

10–20°

29.1 %

20–30°

25.2 %

30–40°

15.7 %

40°+

6.2 %

**03** · Viewshed

## What a mast can see.

Click the terrain to place a mast. Rays from the antenna to every edge cell test line of sight across the grid, with Earth curvature and standard refraction (k = 0.13), for a receiver 2 m above the ground.

Place on

Or click the terrain. With the 3D view focused, arrow keys move the mast 500 m.

**Visible area**: 171.6 km²
**Share of the tile**: 12.5 %
**Farthest visible cell**: 25.0 km
**Mast ground elevation**: 1,653 m
**Mast position**: 51.426° N 116.198° W

**04** · Satellite pass

## One pass, one swath, line by line.

A sensor on a sun-synchronous orbit sweeps its swath down the valley. Optical shows real HLS imagery of 21 August 2025 as a line screen. SAR shows backscatter modelled from the terrain geometry, with layover and shadow.

Sensor

Satellites in the constellation

**Ground-track heading**: 193.2°
**Orbital period, 700 km**: 98.8 min
**Tile inside the swath**: 69.6 %
**Revisit at 51.4° N, about**: 86 days

**05** · GeoAI

## GeoAI as a method, not an oracle.

Candidate slopes are computed from the elevation grid. The detection boxes and their scores show how a model's output is filtered by confidence and reviewed. A method demonstration on real terrain, not a hazard assessment.

**Candidate area**: 168.5 km² · 12.2 %
**Candidate regions**: 195
**Detections at or above threshold**: 42 of 166

**06** · Geodesic grid

## Every station, counted in its cell.

Open-network station positions are aggregated, in your browser, into the geodesic cells of a Goldberg polyhedron, the same idea as H3 hexagons. Filter by domain; extrude by count. Drag the globe to turn it.

Domain

Cells

Extrusion and fill on a log scale of the station count.

**Stations aggregated**: –
**Occupied cells**: –
**Most in one cell**: –
**Cell holding this valley**: –
**Cell under the cursor**: hover the globe

**07** · Layers

Registered stack

## One grid, every layer registered.

Every layer on this page sits on the same grid. Scroll to pull the stack apart and put it back together, or hold it apart. Toggle a layer to see what it adds.

Stack

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