UK-OS Terrain 50

Introduction

OS Terrain 50 digital elevation data at a wind farm in Northamptonshire, UK. Picture contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2018 Ordnance Survey

OS Terrain 50 is a digital elevation dataset for Great Britain – actively maintained by the Ordnance Survey: Two versions of the dataset exist: one vector-dataset that provides height contours with a 10 m vertical spacing and one gridded dataset with a grid-spacing of 50 m. The resolution of the dataset corresponds to a 1:50000 mapping scale. Update frequency is once a year – in July. Two versions are accessible from with windPRO - the 2018 version and the version from 2014.

Dataset Overview

• Spatial Coverage: The whole of Great Britain (but not including Northern Ireland).
• Resolution: 50m grid spacing
• Data-type: Digital Terrain Model (DTM)
• Coordinate system:
  • Horizontal: British National Grid (EPSG: 27700) in original data
  • Vertical: Ordnance Datum Newlyn (EPSG: 5701)
• Version: Two versions are available with windPRO: 2018 and 2014
• Vertical Accuracy: 4m RMSE

Usage Notes

• For projects in Northern Ireland, we recommend the OSNI Open-Data 10m gridded digital elevation dataset.
• For projects in Wales - also consider the LiDAR dataset available in the Wales Elevation Model.
• Need higher resolution data? OS maintains a commercial, higher resolution dataset 'OS Terrain 5'
• The user guide and technical specification for the OS Terrain 50 dataset is available here in this pdf-file.
• We recommend using the most recent version of the data (e.g. for windPRO: the 2018 release)

Availability in WindPRO

The 'OS Terrain 50' data can be accessed from the online-services in the following objects:

• Line Object (with purpose to height contour lines)
• Elevation Grid Object

Licence

The data is distributed according to the OS OpenData terms . Please take proper care to add proper attribution in order to acknowledge the source of information. Typically, this is done by adding the following statement to your report-picture or map:

Credit: Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2018. Distribution through EMD and windPRO.

Acknowledgements

• The UK Ordnance Survey and the public of UK are thanked for producing this digital elevation dataset – and disseminating it in the public domain and thus for aiding the development of renewable energy.

Raw Data Types

• Raw vector data is stored in shape file format or GML3.2.
• Grid data is stored in either ASCII-Grid or GML3.2.

External Links

• Original data is available from the ‘OS Terrain 50’ web-page of the Ordnance Survey https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/products/terrain-50.html.
• OS FAQ on OS Terrain 50 - https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/help-and-support/products/terrain-50.html
• OS OpenData Terms / Licence is available here: http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/docs/licences/os-opendata-licence.pdf.