Terrain visibility analysis
Mount Etna from Malta
A 210 km Mediterranean sight line from Valletta towards Etna, testing the combined effect of target elevation, curvature and refraction.
This page explains a reproducible Sightelo case. The result is recalculated on demand with the available elevation data; it is not a guaranteed real-world observation.
Open and recalculate this analysisPoints and assumptions
- Observation point
- Valletta, Malta
- Point of interest
- Mount Etna, Sicily, Italy
- Geodesic distance
- 209.9 km
- Initial bearing
- 11.6° (north-northeast)
- Refraction
- Standard (k = 0.13)
What this example helps you study
The sea removes most intermediate terrain from this unusually long route, making geometric horizon limits central to the result. Even when the summit clears the modelled horizon, haze and non-standard refraction can decide whether it is actually observable.
Limits of interpretation
The calculation models terrain, Earth curvature and standard atmospheric refraction. It does not model buildings, trees, clouds, haze or local atmospheric variations.