How high your dipole is decides where its signal goes: straight up for regional contacts, or low to the horizon for DX. Pick a band and a height to see the side view of the pattern.
Side view: the horizon is left and right, and straight up is the top. Rings are half and full strength.
A horizontal dipole sends part of its signal down, and that bounces off the ground. The direct and bounced waves add up at some angles and cancel at others. Low dipoles (under about a quarter wavelength) throw most of their signal straight up. That's NVIS (near vertical incidence skywave), great for 0–500 km on 80 and 40 m. Raise the dipole to half a wavelength and the main lobe drops to about 30°. Higher still, it splits into a low lobe for DX and extra lobes above it.
A quarter-wave vertical over perfect ground puts its strongest signal right at the horizon. Over real prairie soil, the lowest few degrees are lost, so its best angle ends up nearer 15–25°. Ground radials matter a lot.
Idealized perfect ground; real ground lowers and softens these patterns. Real soil, nearby buildings and feedlines all change the picture. See Tom Buchanan VE6ARG's articles "Low Radiation Angle" and "Horizontal vs Vertical" in the VE6ARG Library for the practical side.
Maths: broadside elevation pattern of a horizontal dipole over a perfect ground = |2 sin(2π (h/λ) sin θ)|, normalized. Quarter-wave vertical over perfect ground = cos((π/2) sin θ) / cos θ, normalized. θ is the angle above the horizon.