Terrain Awareness helps pilots improve map quality over varied terrain with equal resolution and less likelihood of holes at higher elevations. Terrain Awareness enables the drone to follow the terrain throughout the mapping flight.
- Terrain Awareness is available on DroneDeploy's iOS and Android Flight apps and can be enabled on desktop or mobile devices.
- Terrain Awareness is available on Map, Corridor, and Stand Count plans on iOS and map plans on Android.
- Terrain Awareness is also available for the Mavic 3E on standard mapping and modeling plans.
Next to the flight altitude indicator, your Terrain Awareness indicator will be blue when enabled and grey when disabled. If Terrain Awareness is disabled, but we detect a conflict, the indicator will be Red. To turn on or off, tap the button.
(Terrain Awareness is only available for plans under 200 acres)
Terrain Awareness Indicator
Once you tap into Terrain Awareness, you will see your drone's projected path and elevation as it follows the ground's terrain profile.
Upon clicking the Terrain Awareness button, you can view the drone path and elevation as compared to your terrain.
When Terrain Awareness is disabled, your chart will still show you how your drone will fly in relation to the ground and detect potential conflicts.
Flying with Terrain Awareness Enabled and Disabled
When you enable Flight Awareness, the color of your flight plan will indicate the elevation changes as you fly so you know when to expect elevation changes. Additionally, the Highest and Lowest points will be marked.
Higher elevations are in blue, and lower elevations are in green.
Does this work offline as well as online?
- Yes, Terrain Awareness is now available offline. As long as Terrain Awareness is enabled when your mobile device is online, the terrain data will be downloaded to the device for offline use.
- Terrain Awareness uses Mapbox data sets based on NASA SRTM and highly augmented with supplemental data. High-resolution data is available in the USA, Europe, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Norway, and Canada. Other places on Earth use lower-resolution NASA SRTM data. Data sets are often based on stale data, so please do not assume the terrain data will be perfect. Additionally, buildings and structures are less likely to be reflected in the dataset.