Using USGS DEMs in Mapping Toolbox

I am new to Matlab, and I am trying to use USGS DEMs in Matlab using the Mapping Toolbox. So far, I can't convince Matlab to recognize the USGS DEM downloads.

The USGS National Map Seamless Server provides download formats in ArcGRID, GeoTIFF, GridFloat, and BIl_16INT.

For ArcGRID it appears that Matlab expects a .grd extension but the USGS data doesn't use this extension.

For GeoTIFF the USGS data uses an extension of .tif, but Matlab seems to use this only for images (not DEMs????).

The GridFolat and BIL_16INT don't seem to be recognized by Matlab.

How do I select a USGS download format that Matlab will use to form a DEM map?

Answer 1

[Rob Comer]

Try downloading your data sets in GeoTIFF format, then use geotiffread. It's not limited to images; it can be used for DEMs as well.

[Ray]

Thank you for your response. Using the geotiffread on the USGS tif file gave an error about unequal row lengths.

So, I used the import wizard, which gave a uniform, but unstructured matrix. The result plotted with the contour function was plotted South at the top and North at the bottom. Finally, I used the flipud function to reorder the rows in the matrix in their proper North-South relationship.

Using the contour and contourf functions gave the desired result.

Answer 2

[Ken]

I have the exact same issue, and am "new to NAD". USGS/NAD seems to be the emerging hi-res dataset (down to 1/9 second), replacing dted over the U.S.

It would be nice to have native access via a mapping toolbox interface.

maybe a MATLAB person can let us know if this is coming?