View DTED files in your browser
The military’s grids of heights, a degree of the earth each, at three levels of detail. Open one right here, shaded in its place over OpenStreetMap. The file never leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your heights open in their place on the map, colored from low to high and shaded with light from the northwest.
- Colored from low to high • Shaded from the northwest
- Inspect • The height under the cursor
- Measure • A profile of the heights along a line
- Export • The view as PNG, the profile as CSV
About DTED
The US Defense Mapping Agency, now the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, made DTED for flight simulators, mission planning and guidance, and NATO’s members trade heights in it. SRTM’s heights came out as DTED too, and ArcGIS, Global Mapper, QGIS and GDAL read and write it.
A DTED file is a cell of one degree: a header of 80 bytes, a data set record and an accuracy record, then a column of heights for each line of longitude, in meters as 16 bit numbers. Level 0 has posts 30 arc seconds apart, level 1 3 and level 2 1, and cells far from the equator have fewer posts across.
Filepeek reads the header for where the cell is and how far apart its posts are, and colors its heights from low to high, shaded with light from the northwest. Inspect gives the height under the cursor, Measure draws a profile along a line, and Export saves the view as PNG and the profile as CSV.
Digital Terrain Elevation Data
.dt1 • .dt0 • .dt2
Format
- MIME type
- application/octet-stream
- Made by
- The Defense Mapping Agency, now the NGA
Inside the file
- Holds
- Heights in meters
- Levels
- 0, 1 and 2
- Spacing
- 30, 3 or 1 arc seconds
- A cell
- One degree of the earth
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens DTED cells on a map in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. On their own, browsers download them.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open DTED
- WindowsQGIS • Global Mapper • ArcGIS Pro
- MacQGIS • Global Mapper
- iPhone and iPadNo app built in opens it
- AndroidNo app built in opens it
Questions
How do I open a DTED file?
Drop it on this page or choose Peek a DTED. The cell opens in its place on the map.
What’s the difference between DT0, DT1 and DT2?
How far apart the heights are: about 900 m at level 0, 90 m at level 1 and 30 m at level 2 near the equator. A cell of level 2 holds nine times the posts of level 1.
Why do my cells come in folders like w123/n37.dt1?
That’s how DTED is laid out: a folder for each line of longitude and a file for each degree of latitude. The header holds the cell’s place, so it opens wherever it’s kept.