General Bathymetric Chart of The Oceans - Data Sets and Products

Data Sets and Products

Although originally GEBCO published paper contour charts, today it has moved into the digital age and collects digital depths of the ocean from wherever they are available. GEBCO provides a range of bathymetric data sets and data products, including:

• Global gridded bathymetric data sets:
  • GEBCO_08 Grid — a global bathymetric grid with 30 arc-second spacing, generated by combining quality-controlled ship depth soundings with interpolation between sounding points guided by satellite-derived gravity data.
  • GEBCO One Minute Grid — a global grid at one arc-minute intervals, based largely on the most recent set of bathymetric contours contained within the GEBCO Digital Atlas.

The grids are available to download from the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) in the form of netCDF files, along with free software for displaying and accessing data in ASCII and netCDF. The grids can be used with the Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) system.

• The GEBCO Digital Atlas — a two volume CDROM set which contains:
  • The GEBCO One Minute Grid
  • A global set of digital bathymetric contours and coastlines
  • The GEBCO Gazetteer of Undersea Feature Names: a digital gazetteer of undersea feature names.
  • A software interface for viewing and accessing the data sets
• The GEBCO Gazetteer of Undersea Feature Names — a digital gazetteer of undersea feature names used on sheets and products of GEBCO and Regional International Bathymetric Charts (IBC) projects, and on international (INT) nautical charts. It is available to be downloaded from the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO).
• The GEBCO world map — a global, coloured, paper map of the bathymetry of the world’s oceans based upon the GEBCO One Minute Grid. The map is available to be downloaded in the form of jpeg file.