A method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for presenting terrain elevation information on a vehicle display. In one advantageous embodiment, a swath representing an area ahead of the vehicle is identified, wherein the swath has a length and a width. A two dimensional elevation view is presented on the vehicle display, wherein a vertical axis of the two dimensional elevation view represents a highest elevation along a width of a swath for a particular point along the length of the swath. The width of the swath is updated in response to vehicle movement to form an updated swath width. The two dimensional elevation view is updated using the updated swath width.