JISAO data
Elevation data in netCDF
Global domain.
1-degree latitude-longitude resolution elevations, light shading for elevations < -5000m, and increasingly darker shades for elevations > 0 and 1500m. This choice of shading captures the deeper parts of the world oceans, the Himalayas, Rockies, and the Andies, and shows that much of Antarctica is a high plateau. The elevation data set used for this figure is linked here (in netCDF).

I downloaded a dataset 5-minute resolution from the National Center for Atmospheric Research called "TerrainBase" (TBASE). That WWW page no longer exists or the dataset has been renamed.

There is a 2-minute elevation data set at the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) called ETOPO2.

  • At JISAO, all of these files reside at /home/disk/margaret2/data_sets/elevation/
  • 5-minute latitude-longitude resolution elevation for just the Americas TBASE
  • 0.25-degree latitude-longitude resolution elevation (TBASE)
  • 0.5-degree latitude-longitude resolution elevation (TBASE)
  • 0.75-degree latitude-longitude resolution elevation (ETOPO5) shares the same gridpoints as the ERA interim reanalysis grid
  • 1-degree latitude-longitude resolution elevation (Rand Corporation / Scripps Institution of Oceanography)
  • 1.5-degree latitude-longitude resolution elevation (ETOPO5) shares the same gridpoints as the ERA interim reanalysis grid
  • 2-degree latitude-longitude resolution elevation (TBASE)
  • fractional land (0-1) at 0.25-degree latitude-longitude resolution.
  • fractional land (0-1) at 0.5-degree latitude-longitude resolution.
  • fractional land (0-1) at 1-degree latitude-longitude resolution.
  • fractional land (0-1) at 2-degree latitude-longitude resolution.
  • fractional land (0-1) at 2.5-degree latitude-longitude resolution.
  • fractional land (0-1) at 5-degree latitude-longitude resolution.
    How to shade continents in GrADS.

    GrADS is free software that employs a command-line interface (you type commands in). The following describes how to draw the figure at the top of this WWW page.

    grads  * To start the session

* Define some gray shades
set rgb 16 153 153 153
set rgb 18 205 205 205
set rgb 19 230 230 230

sdfopen elev.1-deg.nc 

set background 0    
set mpdraw off      
set grid off
set grads off

set dfile 1
set gxout shaded    
set clevs -1500 0 1500
set ccols 19 0 18 16
d data
    December 2014
    Todd Mitchell (mitchell@atmos.washington.edu)
    JISAO data