HeyWhatsThat – Calculate viewshed and panorama for any point on Earth(heywhatsthat.com)

399 pointsby Rygianvor 4 Jahren52 comments

HeyWhatsThat – Calculate viewshed and panorama for any point on Earth

https://www.heywhatsthat.com/

52 comments

If you thing this is cool, also check out CalTopo (my favorite mapping software for backpacking):

- https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=40.10094,-105.61557&z=15&b=m...

- Right click and select "Simulated View"

- Change to "WireImagery" in the upper right

bscphilvor 4 Jahren

It's interesting how the simulated view makes errors in the terrain data obvious. The view from Santa Cruz island (off the coast of California) is almost completely obscured by single-pointed errors in the height map along the coast that didn't get cleaned from the data: https://caltopo.com/view#ll=34.0505,-119.8665&e=30&t=n&z=3&c...

black_puppydogvor 4 Jahren

wow this is cool!

but somehow the wireimagery setting doesn't work for any of the locations I've tried. it does work for the one you linked...

Edit: oh... picked a random location in the USA instead and there it works. So... no Europe? what's up with that?

Edit 2: also no south america apparently.

dillondoylevor 4 Jahren

this is AMAZING! It has really great detail for RMNP.

I wish it had lighting. The weather.gov lat/lon graphs has it I wonder if that is a free source or something better.

Snow depth too would be amazing

ge96vor 4 Jahren

that is cool, the history url thing... hit back like a thousand times can't get out, I get the reason but still

nathancahillvor 4 Jahren

I also love CalTopo, and this is a really cool feature. But once you switch to WireImagery, FATMAP gets you the same thing (but better).

bjterryvor 4 Jahren

There is a widely spread myth that Mt. Diablo in Oakland has the second largest viewshed in the world after Mt. Kilimanjaro[1]. With this tool you can actually compare them directly, which is pretty cool:

Mt. Diablo: https://www.heywhatsthat.com/?view=K1JW43D4

Mt. Kilimanjaro: https://www.heywhatsthat.com/?view=ME9CTRPG

1: Debunked here: https://www.kqed.org/news/11808501/does-mount-diablo-have-th...

Archelaosvor 4 Jahren

What about Mt. Taranaki?

https://www.heywhatsthat.com/?view=AVRM3QXH

Mostly ocean, but it seems to cover a wider area.

oonerspismvor 4 Jahren

Not to be flippant, but it's fascinating to think how an average airline passenger may trivially (and very approximately!) match or even beat such a land-based record simply by looking out the window at 40,000ft. *about twice Kilimanjaro's elevation, for the record.

Many semantics potentially apply, of course! But the principle is there. The principle that, for many decades now, humans have been matching the entire planet's largest natural viewshed, as a trivial matter of course during the everyday usage of technology, and barely even noticing most of the time...

scythevor 4 Jahren

Off the top of my head, I'd figure Mt. Shasta must have a much larger viewable area than anything in the Bay Area.

thedookmastervor 4 Jahren

Mt. Diablo is in Contra Costa County, not Oakland.

vospervor 4 Jahren

And at the right time of year there are tarantulas everywhere. Awesome spot.

meristemvor 4 Jahren

Loads of NOPE, thank you.

bjterryvor 4 Jahren

Thanks for the correction. It felt a lot closer, but I haven't been there in a long time.

jeffbeevor 4 Jahren

The way of getting the land area of the viewshed from this presentation is not immediately obvious.

bjterryvor 4 Jahren

My non-scientific method was to put the two windows side-by-side, and click the "zoom out" button three times to eyeball the difference.

matthewmcgvor 4 Jahren

This is very useful for vhf and uhf radio communications as well, which are normally* line of sight.

In fact, the adsb-receiver[1] software package for setting up an aircraft tracking station includes a neat feature where you can use HeyWhatsThat to calculate maximum line of sight distances to aircraft at various altitudes and include these contours on your aircraft tracking map.

* atmospheric phenomena such as density or humidity differences or reflections from other aircraft, the moon, or even meteors can enable reception over the horizon.

[1] https://github.com/jprochazka/adsb-receiver/releases

pridkettvor 4 Jahren

It’s also baked into tar1090[1] which is a little more maintained of a package and pretty easy to get set up if you’ve got an SDR and 1090MHz antenna to track planes.

It’s a fun little hobby - where I live there really isn’t much of a reason to do it as there are enough other 1090MHz receivers in the area, but it still is cool when I look and see obscure jets flying overhead.

[1] https://github.com/wiedehopf/tar1090

stavrosvor 4 Jahren

This is also going to be interesting for figuring out the minimum altitude for maintaining the link to an RC airplane for a given distance.

lesmondvor 4 Jahren

We actually added this as a feature to our sharing software at Plane Finder using our own modelling. If you sign up and then view your stats on the web you can compare your actual to the predicted. https://planefinder.net/coverage

hunter2_vor 4 Jahren

Not to mention even higher bands, like PtP WiFi [1].

[1] https://www.nycmesh.net/

chrisshrobavor 4 Jahren

I use the app PeakFinder all the time and it’s incredible for determining what mountain is what when you’re on the go!

dessantvor 4 Jahren

Thanks so much for sharing, their website has just helped me to better understand the horizon of my city.

https://www.peakfinder.org

bradknowlesvor 4 Jahren

Thanks! I've been looking for an app like that....

angst_riddenvor 4 Jahren

I was just going to say the same. The mobile version is fantastic for when you're out in the field.

The AR feature is really nice.

jlv2vor 4 Jahren

I used to use PeakFinder, but then it was withdrawn and the free version disabled. Now it costs $5.

cracrecryvor 4 Jahren

I suppose the app creator must be saying "Good riddance!" for every "user" that complains the free version of their product does not exist anymore.

Usually the less people pay, the more demands on the developers.

lultimouomovor 4 Jahren

Among the best 5$ I've ever spent.

This is a well polished app, which has non-trivial technical solutions (the AR view works very well and must not have been so simple to implement reliability on a miriad of different android devices).

5 dollars! C'mon.

sytelusvor 4 Jahren

Someone spent lot of time on developing it. This is one app that is absolutely worth $5.

thatchercvor 4 Jahren

What a treat that the default location is Mt. Battie in Maine! I saw the tower up there from town just about every day growing up. Fun to see it pop up online!

jlv2vor 4 Jahren

Agreed. I climbed it 5 years ago, and immediately recognized the name.

wackgetvor 4 Jahren

I'm still waiting for an AR-style app which overlays the image from your phone camera with points of interest or GPS co-ordinates of distant places.

Or hell, even just a map where you can turn your phone facing a general direction and see an approximate line of sight.

ramses0vor 4 Jahren

In the early days of iOS there were tons of those apps.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geotagging#Wikipedia_article_g...

"""One of the first attempts to initiate the geotagging aspect of searching and locating articles seems to be the now-inoperative site Wikinear.com, launched in 2008, which showed the user Wikipedia pages that are geographically closest to one's current location.

The 2009 app Cyclopedia works relatively well showing geotagged Wikipedia articles located within several miles of ones location, integrated with a street-view mode, and 360-degree mode."""

tony_cannistravor 4 Jahren

https://www.peakfinder.org/mobile/

hderschvor 4 Jahren

GeoImageViewer, not an overlay but side-by-side view of photograph and maps. Clicking the image anywhere (not just precalculated pois) shows corresponding location in map and vice-versa. https://hdersch.github.io/

stonogovor 4 Jahren

Ah, well... To absent friends!

https://www.wired.com/2012/05/hands-on-nokia-city-lens-beta-...

imilkvor 4 Jahren

Would be cool to use this same approach to calculate viewscores for properties, much like walkscore does.

jjwisemanvor 4 Jahren

I can never remember what the name of this site is when I need to use it. I should set up a redirecting domain.

Using HeyWhatsThat to check whether a Russian GPS jammer in Khmeimim Air Base in Syria would be able to affect aircraft over Cyprus and in Tel Aviv: https://twitter.com/lemonodor/status/1502400086696869889

Thrymrvor 4 Jahren

> I can never remember what the name of this site is when I need to use it. I should set up a redirecting domain.

Have we reached a world where this is easier than bookmarks?

Personally, I just look through all of my open tabs until I find the site I was looking for...

bigDinosaurvor 4 Jahren

Why don't you create a bookmark with a name you can search on, like 'website used to do X that I always forget'?

stevep98vor 4 Jahren

I’d like to be able to determine the location of a landscape photo. Should be able to calculate the panorama for 5x5 mile regions of earth, and use some matching algorithms to find the closest profile to my picture.

I thought about this when watching geowizard:

https://youtu.be/0ZbmYh9QZgA

hderschvor 4 Jahren

I mentioned GeoImageViewer in a reply above. It contains several algorithms to determine the location of a landscape photo given some control points selected on a map. It is also able to determine lens parameters (fov, distortions,...). https://hdersch.github.io/

joecool1029vor 4 Jahren

Wild, I was going to submit this to HN about a week ago and I hardly ever submit anything. Just slipped my mind. Weird how much the active users on this site think of similar stuff at the same time.

This site also holds that distinction of being niche and useful enough for me to want to remember it but then I forget its name every so many years and have to ask around since it's hard to search it.

beeskneecapsvor 4 Jahren

Super cool! I shared this with my HAM radio club. I think it could be a very useful tool for determining LOS for simplex communications!

sytelusvor 4 Jahren

Are there any open source version of such tool?

oonerspismvor 4 Jahren

Not automated, that I know of.

However, you could replicate the functionality/outputs (for a given location) by using open source GIS software, any available free geospatial data, and basic long-established GIS techniques: the DEM, the cross section, and the viewshed.

sytelusvor 4 Jahren

One thing I constantly look for in new place is where can I see sunsets? Where can I see unobstructed views of town? Which hill in San Franscisco can I climb to see panoramic sunset?

It would be great to take this tool to next level to answer such questions.

addandsubtractvor 4 Jahren

I was thinking the same thing. I recently found apps that let you see the direction of sunrises and sunsets (as well as moon directions) for any given location, but you wouldn't really know if the view is obstructed.

iawvor 4 Jahren

This is really good work, I played around with a script to calculate this info from GIS data but the drawing of the view didn't even occur to me.

jerrybendervor 4 Jahren

Also handy for finding cell phone ping ranges.

idiotsecantvor 4 Jahren

This is a remarkably useful tool. Well done if you are the author!

dr_orpheusvor 4 Jahren

Now I can confidently say I CAN see my house from here!