Quick rasterio example on how to sample elevations from the EarthEnv Digital Elevation Model Version 1 by Natalie Robinson and the NCEAS Environment and Organisms (ENO) Working Group, http://www.earthenv.org/DEM

EarthEnvDEM90.py

def EarthEnvDEM90(lat, lon):
    import rasterio
    tile = 'EarthEnv-DEM90_%s%02i%s%03i' % (lat < 0 and "S" or "N",
                                            abs(lat - lat % 5),
                                            lon < 0 and "W" or "E",
                                            abs(lon - lon % 5))
    # /vsitar/ allows on the fly decompression of the tiles :)
    bil = r'/vsitar/F:\ruben\geodata\dem90\%s.tar.gz\%s.bil' % (tile, tile)
    with rasterio.open(bil) as src:
        r, c = src.index(lon, lat)
        if not lat % 5 or not lon % 5:  # tile edges return off-by-one indices
            #print '==> [off-by-one indices: %i, %i] <==' % (r, c)
            c = max(min(src.meta['width'] - 1, c), 0)
            r = max(min(src.meta['height'] - 1, r), 0)
        w = ((r, r + 1), (c, c + 1))
        data = src.read(1, window=w)
    return data


print 'Everest: %i m a.s.l.' % EarthEnvDEM90(27.988056, 86.925278)
print 'Aconcagua: %i m a.s.l.' % EarthEnvDEM90(-32.653431, -70.011083)
print 'Kilimanjaro: %i m a.s.l.' % EarthEnvDEM90(-3.075833, 37.353333)

print 'Edge case (off-by-one indices): %i m a.s.l.' % EarthEnvDEM90(-10, -75)