Nature · Sagarmatha / Chomolungma · bounded southern view
Mount Everest: terrain elevation and local relief
Mount Everest uses an approximately 8,738-meter surface estimate in EGM2008 from Copernicus GLO-30. The bounded terrain section has about 3,333 meters of local relief above its lowest sampled point. Published summit surveys are separate references.
≈ 8,738 m
Data-derived estimate- Measurement
- Highest sampled surface in the documented Copernicus terrain section · EGM2008
- Subject or version
- Sagarmatha / Chomolungma · bounded southern view
- In feet, rounded
- 28,667.3 ft (1 ft = 0.3048 m)
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Terrain boundary, base and datum
- Vertical reference
- EGM2008. Published surveys are separate; no datum conversion is applied.
- Highest sampled surface
- 8737.8 m at 27.989167°, 86.925556°.
- Local base
- 5405.1 m at 27.982222°, 86.980833°. Lowest sampled point within this bounded terrain section.
- Section bounds in WGS84-G1150
- West 86.869028°, east 86.980972°; south 27.956806°, north 28.019861°.
- View and scale
- Orthographic map section facing north. Equal horizontal and vertical map scales. Approximate grid spacing: 27.3 m east-west and 30.8 m north-south. Lower and surrounding terrain omitted.
produced using Copernicus WorldDEM-30 © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved
A little more perspective
The joint 2020 summit reference is 8,848.86 meters for the snow surface in the International Height Reference System (IHRS), as described by Nepal’s survey team. The scene instead uses the Copernicus surface estimate in EGM2008. The roughly 111-meter difference includes dataset and reference-system differences; it is not a measured error budget or evidence that the mountain shrank.
The local-relief view subtracts the lowest sampled point in this section: 5405.1 meters at 27.982222° latitude, 86.980833° longitude. This produces about 3,333 meters of relief within the stated boundary. It is not a universal mountain base, a route’s total ascent, or topographic prominence.
The rendered surface uses the public 2021 Copernicus release, primarily based on TanDEM-X observations from 2011–2015 with infill from other sources. It is a surface model rather than a current bare-earth survey. Neutral shading explains the geometry without claiming a snow season or photographic ground texture. No datum conversion or summit correction is applied.
Quick facts
Mount Everest uses an approximately 8,738-meter surface estimate in EGM2008 from Copernicus GLO-30. The bounded terrain section has about 3,333 meters of local relief above its lowest sampled point. Published summit surveys are separate references.
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Sources and measurement notes
- Nepal survey team: Measurement of Height of Mt. Sagarmatha
- Copernicus DEM: dataset definition, datums and attribution
- Public Copernicus GLO-30 release documentation
- Wikidata: summit-area identity and initial coordinate
- Copernicus source terrain tile 1 (GeoTIFF)
- Copernicus source terrain tile 2 (GeoTIFF)
The published 8,848.86-meter summit and the terrain dataset’s approximately 8,738-meter maximum are different measurements. No peak stretching or datum conversion is applied.
Source review recorded . Maintained by Ishan Karunaratne. Suggest a correction with a source and the exact measurement being compared.