GaiaGPS dramatically overstates gains and losses compared with other apps
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When I plot a route on Gaia (desktop) and record the elevation gains and losses, then export to gpx and look at terrain profiles on Caltopo, Gaia is higher in absolute value for gain and loss by as much as 3X on sections where there is a lot of elevation change. I've checked with my facebook community and others are finding the same thing comparing Gaia with other apps. My experience in the field suggests that it's Gaia that is overcalculating these values.
Can anyone explain that in Gaia's algorithms vs, the others would be causing seeing such a difference? I've lost confidence in Gaia's elevation values though I still love to use it for route planning. It's a bummer to have to export the routes to gpx and pull them up into Caltopo to get values I'm confident in.
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Hi CBTalbert,
Sorry for the trouble.
We've seen a few reports of routes displaying unexpected elevation stats.
We're looking into this more and we plan to update our algorithm so that it produces more expected elevation stats in situations like this one.
An elevation algorithm can spit out vastly different results based on how often you sample the points. For a mountainous track that has continuously undulating ups and downs, it's possible to get widely different elevations calculated, depending on how frequently you want to sample the points. It will be much higher if you include every tiny up and down. If you under-sample - peaks and valleys may get cut off and the elevation will be too low.
We think the trick is finding the middle ground between what people expect to see, and what is most accurate.
Unfortunately, I don't have an ETA on when you can expect this update to happen, but we are working on it.
If you have any further questions, please contact Support here.
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