The digital elevation model (DEM) provides a means to store and display elevation data. Imagine a checkerboard where the rows represent the directions north-south (latitude) and the columns represent the directions east-west (longitude). Stacked on the checkerboard are square chips to represent heights. In the image above we represent points having the same height with stacks of chips of the same color. We read DEM maps by associating colors with heights in the same way as in the image above, except that we have many more squares, usually more heights, and our viewpoint is from far above.

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