Global datasets
Raster data
Blue Marble imagery
NASA's Blue Marble is a 500m-8 degree per-cell world wide visual image of the Earth from space, with the clouds removed.
- see the Blue Marble wiki page
ETOPO
The ETOPO datasets provide global topography and bathymetry at 1', 2', and 5' per-cell resolutions.
ETOPO1
The cell registered version can be loaded directly into a lat/lon region. GRASS raster data is cell registered (see the GRASS raster semantics page)
The grid registered version must be loaded into a simple XY location using the parameters found in the .hdr file, and needs to have the 90deg N,S rows cropped away:
# create a new simple XY location and mapset
# Import grid registered binary float
r.in.bin -f in=etopo1_bed_g.flt out=etopo1_bed_g \
n=90.008333333335 s=-90.008333333335 e=180.00833333334 \
w=-180.00833333334 rows=10801 cols=21601 anull=-9999
r.colors out=etopo1_bed_g color=etopo2
# reduce region by 1 cell
g.region rast=etopo1_bed_g
eval `g.region -g`
g.region n=n-$nsres s=s+$nsres e=e-$ewres -p
# save smaller raster and remove original
r.mapcalc "etopo1_bed_g.crop = etopo1_bed_g"
g.remove etopo1_bed_g
# change the location to lat/lon by restarting GRASS
# in the PERMANENT mapset and running g.setproj
# or move the entire mapset into a lat/lon location
# and manually edit the $MAPSET/cellhd/ files (dirty!)
ETOPO2
- See the ETOPO2 (2' global) article by M.H. Bowman in the GRASS Newsletter, 1:8-11, August 2004.
GEBCO
- The General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans
Miscellaneous
- Some datasource links: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~ben/gmt.html
- The r.in.gdal modules may be used to import data of many formats, including GMT netCDF
- The r.in.bin module may be used to import raw binary files
LANDSAT
Since October 1, 2008 all Landsat 7 ETM+ scenes held in the USGS EROS archive are available for download at no charge.
- Download via the Glovis online search tool (req. Java)
- Download via the USGS's EarthExplorer interface
Modules
- r.in.gdal - Main import tool for complete multiband scenes
- r.in.wms - Download data covering current map region via WMS server
- r.in.onearth - WMS frontend for NASA's OnEarth Global Landsat Mosaic
- i.landsat.rgb - Color balancing/enhancement tool
MODIS
- see the MODIS wiki page
Pathfinder AVHRR SST
- see the MODIS#Pathfinder_SST wiki page
- merge that info here?
QuickBird
- Wikipedia's QuickBird entry
- Import with the r.in.gdal module
SeaWiFS
- see the MODIS#SeaWiFS wiki page
- merge that info here?
Smith and Sandwell
- Merge info here from the Marine Science wiki page
SRTM
- see the r.in.srtm module
Vector data
GSHHS World Coastline
GSHHS is a high resolution shoreline dataset. It is in the public domain. The shorelines are constructed entirely from hierarchically arranged closed polygons. It is closely linked to the GMT project.
- Download data from http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/wessel/gshhs/gshhs.html
- Import with the v.in.gshhs module for GRASS 5 (perhaps needs to be updated to the latest version of the GSHHS format?)
- how for GRASS 6?
- Download data from NOAA's shoreline extractor site.
- For GRASS 6 you can download 1:250,000 shoreline data in Mapgen format, which can be imported with the v.in.mapgen module.
VMap0
1:1 million vector data. Formerly known as Digital Chart of the World
- see the two articles in GRASS Newsletter vol. 3 (June 2005)