Aspect formula

[raghuramnarasimhan]

Hi all,

Here is a question. The help files on ArcGIS gives the calculation of aspect for a DEM as aspect = 57.29578 * atan2 ([dz/dy], -[dz/dx])

This is perhaps a pretty basic question which I'm not able to get around- what is 57.29578? Is it a correction factor? I'm assuming its an angle b/w 0-360 but I want to know why this particular decimal number is being used.

Any tips on the above would be great.

Thanks,
Raghu

[Anonymous User · Accepted solution]

Its converting the output from atan2, which is radians, to degrees.
1 radian = 57.29578 degrees.

[raghuramnarasimhan]

Great, thanks Sean.