Gridded bathymetry data
GEBCO provides global bathymetry data sets for the world's oceans.
The GEBCO One Minute Grid was originally released in 2003 and provides bathymetry data on a global grid with one arc-minute spacing. It is a continuous digital terrain model for ocean and land, with land elevations derived from the Global Land One-km Base Elevation (GLOBE) database.
Version 2.0 of the GEBCO One Minute Grid was released in November 2008 and contains version 2.23 of the International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO) and improved shallow water bathymetry for some areas.
The grid is 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. The grid can be used with Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) system and is included as part of the GEBCO Digital Atlas.
Release of a new gridded bathymetric data set
In late 2008 GEBCO are releasing the GEBCO_08 Grid — a global grid with 30 arc-second spacing.
The grid was generated by combining quality-controlled ship depth soundings with interpolation between sounding points guided by satellite-derived gravity data.
It is a continuous terrain model for ocean and land with land data largely derived from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM30) data set.
The grid will be available to download from the web in netCDF form.
Find out more
- View 3-D plots of the GEBCO One Minute Grid
- User Guide to the GEBCO One Minute Grid
(784 KB) - Version 2.0 of the GEBCO One Minute Grid (353 KB)
