License Information

Use of this function requires a license for Whitebox Workflows for Python Professional (WbW-Pro). Please visit www.whiteboxgeo.com to purchase a license.

Description

This tool generates a raster of shadow areas based on an input digital surface model (DSM). This shadow model is based on the calculated positions of the sun throughout a user-specified date (date), sampling at a regular interval (interval), in minutes. Similar to the time_in_daylight tool, this tool uses calculated horizon angle (horizon_angle) values and a solar position model to determine which grid cells are located in shadow areas due to distant obsticles. The calculation of horizon angle, requires the user input a maximum search distance parameter (max_dist).

The user must specify the date (date), time (time), and location (location) of the input DSM. The date should have the format DD/MM/YYYY, e.g. 27/11/1976. The time should have the format HH::MM, e.g. 03:15AM or 14:30. The location parameter should take the form Lat/Long/UTC-offset, e.g. 43.5448/-80.2482/-4/. Note, the location need only be approximate; the postion of the central location of the input DSM raster should suffice.

The output (output) of this tool is a raster. If a palette (palette) is chosen, then the output raster will be a colour composite image, containing a hysometrically tinted (i.e. elevation coloured) shadow model. The DSM may be rendered in one of several available palettes (palette) suitable for visualization topography. If the palette is set to 'none', the output image will not be a colour composite, but rather, will be a 16-bit integer raster, and should be displayed in a grey-scale palette.

The following is an example of what the output of this tool looks like.

For more information about this tool, see this blog on the WhiteboxTools homepage.

See Also

shadow_animation, time_in_daylight, horizon_angle, lidar_digital_surface_model, hypsometrically_tinted_hillshade

Project Links

WbW Homepage User Manual Support WbW