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Coverage and state endpoints

The DTED.org welcome map is the live registry of active public enhanced coverage. Current releases derive it from each source-only offline DTED package rather than from a planned rollout list or canonical fallback entries.

Each colored square is a 1° × 1° cell. Its color shows the highest enhanced DTED level published at that coordinate. Boundary cells can extend beyond a state's political boundary because source DTED is tiled by whole degrees.

Endpoint naming

Published states use lowercase USPS identifiers:

https://STATE.dted.org

For example, California uses https://ca.dted.org. Always select the endpoint from the live map or product catalog; the existence of a state abbreviation does not mean a release is active.

When more than one terrain source is available, use https://dted.org/states/STATE/ to compare the choices. State and source-specific endpoint pages link to the same comparison and identify the currently selected source.

What every state page provides

  • A streaming QR setup for ATAK's built-in Elevation Tools and optional SDS.
  • A TAK configuration package and standalone preference file.
  • A zipped state DTED package for offline import.
  • A coverage index and exact 1° cell map.
  • Native quadrant archives for compatible clients.
  • Release metadata, source attribution, and licensing.
  • A quality result when a release has passed or failed the state quality gate.
  • Source selection and comparison when another production or eligible public evaluation source exists.

Canonical endpoints overlay their highest available regional cells on the documented lower-resolution baseline. Source-specific alternatives contain only their own published cells and never silently use that baseline. Public maps show only enhanced cells so they do not imply high-resolution coverage elsewhere.

Quality labels

The welcome page uses three labels:

  • Validated — the active release records a passing DTED.org quality result.
  • Evaluation — the release is public but records a failed quality result and must not be described as evidence-certified.
  • Unverified — the active release does not carry a quality result.

Publication is not the same as certification. Review the state page and public quality summary before operational use.

Machine-readable coverage

GET /api/v1/coverage returns active public datasets and enhanced cells. Each cell includes its lower-left longitude and latitude, DTED level, and owning dataset identifiers. Overlapping state releases are merged while retaining all owners.

GET /api/v1/products returns the TAK product catalog with endpoint, index, preference, and mission-package artifacts. State and territory products also include the offline zipped-DTED artifact. It lists production releases only.

GET /api/v1/regions/STATE/terrain-sources returns the regional comparison, including source guidance, exact per-release enhanced cells, TAK artifact links, and eligible public evaluation previews.

GET /api/v1/sources returns the supported source definitions, including common uses, users, and limitations.

Source rollout

New state data is not published merely because a manifest or source archive exists. It must proceed through receipt-backed acquisition, structural and coverage auditing, public QA preview, client testing, and explicit promotion. See Data acquisition and State quality gate for the maintainer workflow.