How the Northwest Stadium seat and sun data is measured

Every number comes from a USGS lidar survey of the stadium, NOAA solar equations, the official stadium map and published row lists. Nothing is estimated from photos.

Sources

Stadium shape: USGS 3D Elevation Program lidar, Maryland Central collection, flown 11 December 2023, 1 tile. First-return points gridded to 1 m, noise removed.
Section directions: the section order round the stadium from a ticket map (section centres only), lined up with the field in the lidar. The Commanders side is from the official 2026 stadium map, which draws the Washington bench in front of Sections 101 to 105 and 138 to 142.
Row lists, covered rows and clubs: rateyourseats.com section notes.
Gates, bag rules, parking, tailgating and transit: commanders.com and northweststadium.com. Capacity and opening year: Wikipedia.
Sun: NOAA solar position equations. Weather: ERA5 reanalysis and forecasts via Open-Meteo.

How shade is computed

Each section is sampled on 3 lines (left, centre, right) at every row, 9120 seat points in total. For each point the surrounding stadium surface is scanned in every direction the sun can come from to give a horizon profile. A seat is in direct sun when the sun is higher than that horizon. Games are sampled every 10 minutes for 3.5 hours. Rows under the deck above count as shade.

How rows are placed

A line is walked out from the field edge through each section, and the measured profile is split into tiers by height: the lower rake up to about 10 m (the 100 level, with the 200 level behind it on the same slope), the 300 club level about 13 to 21 m up, and the 400 level about 28 to 50 m up. Where a cover row is published, the row depth is the open length of the tier divided by the rows in front of it. Row depths range from 0.55 to 0.95 m.

How the seat views are made

Each view is drawn from a 3D model built from the lidar, from 1.15 m above the seat (seated eye height), facing the field. Only rows open to the sky get a view.

Limits

The lidar was flown in December 2023. Before the 2025 season the Commanders added a net 1,500 seats, mostly in the upper deck (The Athletic, September 2025); no source says which sections. The 400 level end sections (410 to 418 and 437 to 445) are modelled from the 2023 shape and match the 2026 stadium map, but their rows may differ from what was there when the scan was flown.
The 300 club level is mostly under the suite level and the 400 deck, so it is visible from above for only a few metres. Its rows are packed at our minimum depth, so front-to-back distances and heights for its back rows are approximate.
The 200 level sits behind the 100 level on the same slope with no visible break, so the boundary between them is placed by row count.
Sections 231 to 233 and 310 to 312 are not on the 2026 stadium map or the ticket map and are not modelled.
Rows under the deck above are hidden from above, so their position is extended along the measured slope and shown as covered.
Section edges come from the section order round the stadium, not an official drawing, so a section's sideways extent can be off by a seat or two.
Light poles and video boards thinner than the 1 m grid may be missed.
No seat view for Sections 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229: too few open rows to render. Their rows and sun minutes are still shown.

Downloads (CC BY 4.0)

sun-by-section.csv: game, kickoff, section, minutes of sun, shade arrival
sections.json: section geometry and row-by-row sightlines