GEBCO Global Topography

30 arc-second global topography

The GEBCO_08 Grid is a 30 arc-second grid of global elevations, a continuous terrain model for ocean and land. The grid was generated by combining quality-controlled ship depth soundings with interpolation between sounding points guided by satellite-derived gravity data. The land data are largely taken from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM30) data set.
Metadata: http://www.bodc.ac.uk/data/online_delivery/gebco/info2/
Spatial Resolution: 30 arc-second
Extent: Global
Temporal Resolution: N/A
Date Range: 01/2009
Format(s): NetCDF (GMT compatible, 1D)
Access Methods: HTTP (registration required)
Data Access: http://www.bodc.ac.uk/data/online_delivery/gebco/
CoML visualization guidance: TBD

Use Example

Download the full GEBCO_08 grid as a netCDF file, convert to a GeoTIF, and visualize with ArcGIS 9.3

Data Access: http://www.bodc.ac.uk/data/online_delivery/gebco/ (initial registration is required, very large file ~1.2GB)
Data Conversion: These conversion instructions require the open-source GDAL GIS package (see http://gdal.org/ or download for Windows via OSGeo4W). Contact us if you want to download a already converted GeoTIFF file.

Download the zip file and unzip.

From within the OSGeo4W Shell in Windows or shell in Linux, navigate to the unzipped GEBCO_O8.nc file.

Get information about the file with the gdalinfo utility

> gdalinfo GEBCO_08.nc

Convert to GeoTIF with the gdal_translate utility

> gdal_translate -a_srs EPSG:4326 GEBCO_08.nc GEBCO_08.tif

Add the GeoTIF to any data frame in ArcGIS.

This file may also be converted with the Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) software.

This file may also be visualized natively with the open-source Quantum GIS package.