1PSCOAST(1) GMT PSCOAST(1)
2
6 pscoast - Plot continents, shorelines, rivers, and borders on maps
7
9 pscoast -Jparameters
10 -Rregion [ -Aarea ] [ -B[p|s]parameters ] [ -C[l|r/]fill ] [
11 -Dresolution[+] ] [ -Edcw ] [ -Fbox ] [ -Gfill|c ] [ -Iriver[/pen]
12 ] [ -Jz|Zparameters ] [ -K ] [ -Lscalebar ] [ -M ] [ -Nbor‐
13 der[/pen] ] [ -O ] [ -P ] [ -Q ] [ -Sfill|c ] [ -Trose ] [
14 -Tmag_rose ] [ -U[stamp] ] [ -V[level] ] [ -W[level/]pen ] [
15 -Xx_offset ] [ -Yy_offset ] [ -bobinary ] [ -pflags ] [ -ttransp ]
16 Note: No space is allowed between the option flag and the associated
18 arguments.
19
21 pscoast plots grayshaded, colored, or textured land-masses [or
22 water-masses] on maps and [optionally] draws coastlines, rivers, and
23 political boundaries. Alternatively, it can (1) issue clip paths that
24 will contain all land or all water areas, or (2) dump the data to an
25 ASCII table. The data files come in 5 different resolutions: (f)ull,
26 (h)igh, (i)ntermediate, (l)ow, and (c)rude. The full resolution files
27 amount to more than 55 Mb of data and provide great detail; for maps of
28 larger geographical extent it is more economical to use one of the
29 other resolutions. If the user selects to paint the land-areas and does
30 not specify fill of water-areas then the latter will be transparent
31 (i.e., earlier graphics drawn in those areas will not be overwritten).
32 Likewise, if the water-areas are painted and no land fill is set then
33 the land-areas will be transparent. A map projection must be supplied.
34 The PostScript code is written to standard output.
35
37 -Jparameters (more ...)
38 Select map projection.
39 -Rwest/east/south/north[/zmin/zmax][+r][+uunit]
41 west, east, south, and north specify the region of interest, and
42 you may specify them in decimal degrees or in
43 [±]dd:mm[:ss.xxx][W|E|S|N] format Append +r if lower left and
44 upper right map coordinates are given instead of w/e/s/n. The
45 two shorthands -Rg and -Rd stand for global domain (0/360 and
46 -180/+180 in longitude respectively, with -90/+90 in latitude).
47 Alternatively for grid creation, give Rcodelon/lat/nx/ny, where
48 code is a 2-character combination of L, C, R (for left, center,
49 or right) and T, M, B for top, middle, or bottom. e.g., BL for
50 lower left. This indicates which point on a rectangular region
51 the lon/lat coordinate refers to, and the grid dimensions nx and
52 ny with grid spacings via -I is used to create the corresponding
53 region. Alternatively, specify the name of an existing grid
54 file and the -R settings (and grid spacing, if applicable) are
55 copied from the grid. Appending +uunit expects projected (Carte‐
56 sian) coordinates compatible with chosen -J and we inversely
57 project to determine actual rectangular geographic region. For
58 perspective view (-p), optionally append /zmin/zmax. In case of
59 perspective view (-p), a z-range (zmin, zmax) can be appended to
60 indicate the third dimension. This needs to be done only when
61 using the -Jz option, not when using only the -p option. In the
62 latter case a perspective view of the plane is plotted, with no
63 third dimension.
64 For perspective view p, optionally append /zmin/zmax. (more ...)
66
68 -Amin_area[/min_level/max_level][+ag|i|s|S][+r|l][+ppercent]
69 Features with an area smaller than min_area in km^2 or of hier‐
70 archical level that is lower than min_level or higher than
71 max_level will not be plotted [Default is 0/0/4 (all features)].
72 Level 2 (lakes) contains regular lakes and wide river bodies
73 which we normally include as lakes; append +r to just get
74 river-lakes or +l to just get regular lakes. By default (+ai)
75 we select the ice shelf boundary as the coastline for Antarc‐
76 tica; append +ag to instead select the ice grounding line as
77 coastline. For expert users who wish to print their own Antarc‐
78 tica coastline and islands via psxy you can use +as to skip all
79 GSHHG features below 60S or +aS to instead skip all features
80 north of 60S. Finally, append +ppercent to exclude polygons
81 whose percentage area of the corresponding full-resolution fea‐
82 ture is less than percent. See GSHHG INFORMATION below for more
83 details.
84 -B[p|s]parameters (more ...)
86 Set map boundary frame and axes attributes.
87 -C[l|r/]fill
89 Set the shade, color, or pattern for lakes and river-lakes
90 [Default is the fill chosen for "wet" areas (-S)]. Optionally,
91 specify separate fills by prepending l/ for lakes and r/ for
92 river-lakes, repeating the -C option as needed.
93 -Dresolution[+]
95 Selects the resolution of the data set to use ((f)ull, (h)igh,
96 (i)ntermediate, (l)ow, and (c)rude). The resolution drops off by
97 80% between data sets [Default is l]. Append + to automatically
98 select a lower resolution should the one requested not be avail‐
99 able [abort if not found]. Alternatively, choose (a)uto to
100 automatically select the best resolution given the chosen map
101 scale.
102 -Ecode1,code2,...[+l|L][+gfill][+ppen][+r|R[incs]]
104 Select painting or dumping country polygons from the Digital
105 Chart of the World. This is another dataset independent of
106 GSHHG and hence the -A and -D options do not apply. Append one
107 or more comma-separated countries using the 2-character ISO
108 3166-1 alpha-2 convention. To select a state of a country (if
109 available), append .state, e.g, US.TX for Texas. To specify a
110 whole continent, prepend = to any of the continent codes AF
111 (Africa), AN (Antarctica), AS (Asia), EU (Europe), OC (Oceania),
112 NA (North America), or SA (South America). Append +l to just
113 list the countries and their codes [no data extraction or plot‐
114 ting takes place]. Use +L to see states/territories for
115 Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and the US. Use +r to
116 obtain the bounding box coordinates from the polygon(s). Append
117 inc, xinc/yinc, or winc/einc/sinc/ninc to adjust the region to
118 be a multiple of these steps [no adjustment]. Use +R to extend
119 the region outward by adding these increments instead [no exten‐
120 sion]. Append +ppen to draw polygon outlines [no outline] and
121 +gfill to fill them [no fill]. One of +p|g must be specified
122 unless +r, +R, or -M is in effect, and only one -E option can be
123 given. You may repeat -E to give different groups of items sep‐
124 arate pen/fill settings. If modifiers +r or +R are used and
125 neither -J nor -M is set then we just print the -Rwesn string.
126 -F[+cclear‐
128 ances][+gfill][+i[[gap/]pen]][+p[pen]][+r[radius]][+s[[dx/dy/][shade]]]
129 Without further options, draws a rectangular border around the
130 map scale or rose using MAP_FRAME_PEN; specify a different pen
131 with +ppen. Add +gfill to fill the logo box [no fill]. Append
132 +cclearance where clearance is either gap, xgap/ygap, or
133 lgap/rgap/bgap/tgap where these items are uniform, separate in
134 x- and y-direction, or individual side spacings between logo and
135 border. Append +i to draw a secondary, inner border as well. We
136 use a uniform gap between borders of 2p and the MAP_DEFAULT_PEN
137 unless other values are specified. Append +r to draw rounded
138 rectangular borders instead, with a 6p corner radius. You can
139 override this radius by appending another value. Finally, append
140 +s to draw an offset background shaded region. Here, dx/dy indi‐
141 cates the shift relative to the foreground frame [4p/-4p] and
142 shade sets the fill style to use for shading [gray50]. Requires
143 -L or -T. If both -L or -T, you may repeat -F after each of
144 these.
145 -Gfill|c
147 Select filling or clipping of "dry" areas. Append the shade,
148 color, or pattern; or use -Gc for clipping [Default is no fill].
149 -Iriver[/pen]
151 Draw rivers. Specify the type of rivers and [optionally] append
152 pen attributes [Default pen: width = default, color = black,
153 style = solid].
154 Choose from the list of river types below; repeat option -I as
156 often as necessary.
157 0 = Double-lined rivers (river-lakes)
159 1 = Permanent major rivers
161 2 = Additional major rivers
163 3 = Additional rivers
165 4 = Minor rivers
167 5 = Intermittent rivers - major
169 6 = Intermittent rivers - additional
171 7 = Intermittent rivers - minor
173 8 = Major canals
175 9 = Minor canals
177 10 = Irrigation canals
179 You can also choose from several preconfigured river groups:
181 a = All rivers and canals (0-10)
183 A = All rivers and canals except river-lakes (1-10)
185 r = All permanent rivers (0-4)
187 R = All permanent rivers except river-lakes (1-4)
189 i = All intermittent rivers (5-7)
191 c = All canals (8-10)
193 -Jz|Zparameters (more ...)
195 Set z-axis scaling; same syntax as -Jx.
196 -K (more ...)
198 Do not finalize the PostScript plot.
199 -L[g|j|J|n|x]ref‐
201 point+c[slon/]slat+wlength[e|f|k|M|n|u][+aalign][+f][+jjus‐
202 tify][+l[label]][+odx[/dy]][+u]
203 Draws a simple map scale centered on the reference point speci‐
204 fied using one of four coordinate systems: (1) Use -Lg for map
205 (user) coordinates, (2) use -Lj or -LJ for setting refpoint via
206 a 2-char justification code that refers to the (invisible) map
207 domain rectangle, (3) use -Ln for normalized (0-1) coordinates,
208 or (4) use -Lx for plot coordinates (inches, cm, etc.). Scale
209 is calculated for latitude slat (optionally supply longitude
210 slon for oblique projections [Default is central meridian]),
211 length is in km, or append unit from e|f|k|M|n|u. Change the
212 label alignment with +aalign (choose among l(eft), r(ight),
213 t(op), and b(ottom)). Append +f to get a "fancy" scale [Default
214 is plain]. By default, the anchor point on the map scale is
215 assumed to be the center of the scale (MC), but this can be
216 changed by appending +j followed by a 2-char justification code
217 justify (see pstext for list and explanation of codes). Append
218 +l to select the default label, which equals the distance unit
219 (meter, foot, km, mile, nautical mile, US survey foot) and is
220 justified on top of the scale [t]. Change this by giving your
221 own label (append +llabel). Add +o to offset the map scale by
222 dx/dy away from the refpoint in the direction implied by justify
223 (or the direction implied by -Dj or -DJ). Select +u to append
224 the unit to all distance annotations along the scale (for the
225 plain scale, +u will instead select the unit to be appended to
226 the distance length). Note: Use FONT_LABEL to change the label
227 font and FONT_ANNOT_PRIMARY to change the annotation font. The
228 height of the map scale is controlled by MAP_SCALE_HEIGHT, and
229 the pen thickness is set by MAP_TICK_PEN_PRIMARY. See -F on how
230 to place a panel behind the scale.
231 -M Dumps a single multisegment ASCII (or binary, see -bo) file to
233 standard output. No plotting occurs. Specify one of -E, -I, -N
234 or -W. Note: if -M is used with -E then -R or the +r modifier
235 to -E are not required as we automatically determine the region
236 given the selected geographic entities.
237 -Nborder[/pen]
239 Draw political boundaries. Specify the type of boundary and
240 [optionally] append pen attributes [Default pen: width =
241 default, color = black, style = solid].
242 Choose from the list of boundaries below. Repeat option -N as
244 often as necessary.
245 1 = National boundaries
247 2 = State boundaries within the Americas
249 3 = Marine boundaries
251 a = All boundaries (1-3)
253 -O (more ...)
255 Append to existing PostScript plot.
256 -P (more ...)
258 Select "Portrait" plot orientation.
259 -Q Mark end of existing clip path. No projection information is
261 needed. Also supply -X and -Y settings if you have moved since
262 the clip started.
263 -Sfill|c
265 Select filling or clipping of "wet" areas. Append the shade,
266 color, or pattern; or use -Sc for clipping [Default is no fill].
267 -Td[g|j|J|n|x]refpoint+wwidth[+f[level]][+jjus‐
269 tify][+lw,e,s,n][+odx[/dy]]
270 -Td draws a map directional rose on the map at the location
271 defined by the reference and anchor points: Give the reference
272 point on the map for the rose using one of four coordinate sys‐
273 tems: (1) Use g for map (user) coordinates, (2) use j for set‐
274 ting refpoint via a 2-char justification code that refers to the
275 (invisible) map domain rectangle, (3) use n for normalized (0-1)
276 coordinates, or (4) use x for plot coordinates (inches, cm,
277 etc.) [Default]. You can offset the reference point by dx/dy in
278 the direction implied by justify. By default, the anchor point
279 on the scale is assumed to be the center of the rose (MC), but
280 this can be changed by appending +j followed by a 2-char justi‐
281 fication code justify (see pstext for list and explanation of
282 codes). Note: If -Dj is used then justify defaults to the same
283 as refpoint, if -DJ is used then justify defaults to the mirror
284 opposite of refpoint. Add +o to offset the color scale by dx/dy
285 away from the refpoint in the direction implied by justify (or
286 the direction implied by -Dj or -DJ). Append +wwidth to set the
287 width of the rose in plot coordinates (in inches, cm, or
288 points). Add +f to get a "fancy" rose, and specify in level
289 what you want drawn. The default [1] draws the two principal
290 E-W, N-S orientations, 2 adds the two intermediate NW-SE and
291 NE-SW orientations, while 3 adds the eight minor orientations
292 WNW-ESE, NNW-SSE, NNE-SSW, and ENE-WSW. Label the cardinal
293 points W,E,S,N by adding +l and append your own four comma-sepa‐
294 rated strings to override the default. Skip a specific label by
295 leaving it blank. See Placing-dir-map-roses and -F on how to
296 place a panel behind the scale.
297 -Tm[g|j|J|n|x]refpoint+wwidth[+ddec[/dlabel]]][+ipen][+jjus‐
299 tify][+lw,e,s,n][+ppen][+tints][+odx[/dy]]
300 -Tm draws a map magnetic rose on the map at the location defined by
301 the reference and anchor points: Give the reference point on the map
302 for the rose using one of four coordinate systems: (1) Use g for map
303 (user) coordinates, (2) use j for setting refpoint via a 2-char jus‐
304 tification code that refers to the (invisible) map domain rectangle,
305 (3) use n for normalized (0-1) coordinates, or (4) use x for plot
306 coordinates (inches, cm, etc.) [Default]. You can offset the refer‐
307 ence point by dx/dy in the direction implied by justify. By
308 default, the anchor point on the scale is assumed to be the center
309 of the rose (MC), but this can be changed by appending +j followed
310 by a 2-char justification code justify (see pstext for list and
311 explanation of codes). Note: If -Dj is used then justify defaults
312 to the same as refpoint, if -DJ is used then justify defaults to the
313 mirror opposite of refpoint. Add +o to offset the color scale by
314 dx/dy away from the refpoint in the direction implied by justify (or
315 the direction implied by -Dj or -DJ). Append +wwidth to set the
316 width of the rose in plot coordinates (in inches, cm, or points).
317 Use +d to assign the magnetic declination and set dlabel, which is a
318 label for the magnetic compass needle (Leave empty to format a label
319 from dec, or give - to bypass labeling). With +d, both directions to
320 geographic and magnetic north are plotted [Default is geographic
321 only]. If the north label is * then a north star is plotted instead
322 of the north label. Annotation and two levels of tick intervals for
323 both geographic and magnetic directions default to 30/5/1 degrees;
324 override these settings by appending +tints, and append six
325 slash-separated intervals to set both the geographic (first three)
326 and magnetic (last three) intervals. Label the cardinal points
327 W,E,S,N by adding +l and append your own four comma-separated
328 strings to override the default. Skip a specific label by leaving
329 it blank. Number GMT default parameters control pens, fonts, and
330 color. See Placing-dir-map-roses and -F on how to place a panel
331 behind the scale.
332 -U[[just]/dx/dy/][c|label] (more ...)
334 Draw GMT time stamp logo on plot.
335 -V[level] (more ...)
337 Select verbosity level [c].
338 -W[level/]pen (more ...)
340 Draw shorelines [Default is no shorelines]. Append pen
341 attributes [Defaults: width = default, color = black, style =
342 solid] which apply to all four levels. To set the pen for each
343 level differently, prepend level/, where level is 1-4 and repre‐
344 sent coastline, lakeshore, island-in-lake shore, and
345 lake-in-island-in-lake shore. Repeat -W as needed. When spe‐
346 cific level pens are set, those not listed will not be drawn
347 [Default draws all levels; but see -A].
348 -X[a|c|f|r][x-shift[u]]
350 -Y[a|c|f|r][y-shift[u]] (more ...)
352 Shift plot origin.
353 -bo[ncols][type] (more ...)
355 Select native binary output.
356 -p[x|y|z]azim[/elev[/zlevel]][+wlon0/lat0[/z0]][+vx0/y0] (more ...)
358 Select perspective view.
359 -t[transp] (more ...)
361 Set PDF transparency level in percent.
362 -^ or just -
364 Print a short message about the syntax of the command, then
365 exits (NOTE: on Windows just use -).
366 -+ or just +
368 Print an extensive usage (help) message, including the explana‐
369 tion of any module-specific option (but not the GMT common
370 options), then exits.
371 -? or no arguments
373 Print a complete usage (help) message, including the explanation
374 of all options, then exits.
375
377 To plot a green Africa with white outline on blue background, with per‐
378 manent major rivers in thick blue pen, additional major rivers in thin
379 blue pen, and national borders as dashed lines on a Mercator map at
380 scale 0.1 inch/degree, use
381 gmt pscoast -R-30/30/-40/40 -Jm0.1i -B5 -I1/1p,blue -N1/0.25p,- \
383 -I2/0.25p,blue -W0.25p,white -Ggreen -Sblue -P > africa.ps
384 To plot Iceland using the lava pattern (# 28) at 100 dots per inch, on
386 a Mercator map at scale 1 cm/degree, run
387 gmt pscoast -R-30/-10/60/65 -Jm1c -B5 -Gp28+r100 > iceland.ps
389 To initiate a clip path for Africa so that the subsequent colorimage of
391 gridded topography is only seen over land, using a Mercator map at
392 scale 0.1 inch/degree, use
393 gmt pscoast -R-30/30/-40/40 -Jm0.1i -B5 -Gc -P -K > africa.ps
395 gmt grdimage -Jm0.1i etopo5.nc -Ccolors.cpt -O -K >> africa.ps
396 gmt pscoast -Q -O >> africa.ps
397 To plot Great Britain, Italy, and France in blue with a red outline and
399 Spain, Portugal and Greece in yellow (no outline), and pick up the plot
400 domain form the extents of these countries, use
401 gmt pscoast -JM6i -P -Baf -EGB,IT,FR+gblue+p0.25p,red+r -EES,PT,GR+gyellow > map.ps
403 To extract a high-resolution coastline data table for Iceland to be
405 used in your analysis, try
406 gmt pscoast -R-26/-12/62/68 -Dh -W -M > iceland.txt
408 pscoast will first look for coastline files in directory
410 $GMT_SHAREDIR/coast If the desired file is not found, it will look for
411 the file $GMT_SHAREDIR/coastline.conf. This file may contain any number
412 of records that each holds the full pathname of an alternative direc‐
413 tory. Comment lines (#) and blank lines are allowed. The desired file
414 is then sought for in the alternate directories.
415
417 The coastline database is GSHHG (formerly GSHHS) which is compiled from
418 three sources: World Vector Shorelines (WVS), CIA World Data Bank II
419 (WDBII), and Atlas of the Cryosphere (AC, for Antarctica only). Apart
420 from Antarctica, all level-1 polygons (ocean-land boundary) are derived
421 from the more accurate WVS while all higher level polygons (level 2-4,
422 representing land/lake, lake/island-in-lake, and
423 island-in-lake/lake-in-island-in-lake boundaries) are taken from WDBII.
424 The Antarctica coastlines come in two flavors: ice-front or grounding
425 line, selectable via the -A option. Much processing has taken place to
426 convert WVS, WDBII, and AC data into usable form for GMT: assembling
427 closed polygons from line segments, checking for duplicates, and cor‐
428 recting for crossings between polygons. The area of each polygon has
429 been determined so that the user may choose not to draw features
430 smaller than a minimum area (see -A); one may also limit the highest
431 hierarchical level of polygons to be included (4 is the maximum). The 4
432 lower-resolution databases were derived from the full resolution data‐
433 base using the Douglas-Peucker line-simplification algorithm. The clas‐
434 sification of rivers and borders follow that of the WDBII. See the GMT
435 Cookbook and Technical Reference Appendix K for further details.
436
438 The options to fill (-C -G -S) may not always work if the Azimuthal
439 equidistant projection is chosen (-Je|E). If the antipole of the pro‐
440 jection is in the oceans it will most likely work. If not, try to avoid
441 using projection center coordinates that are even multiples of the
442 coastline bin size (1, 2, 5, 10, and 20 degrees for f, h, i, l, c,
443 respectively). This projection is not supported for clipping.
444 The political borders are for the most part 1970s-style but have been
446 updated to reflect more recent border rearrangements in Europe and
447 elsewhere. Let us know if you find something out of date.
448 The full-resolution coastlines are also from a digitizing effort in the
450 1970-80s and it is difficult to assess the accuracy. Users who zoom in
451 close enough may find that the GSHHG coastline is not matching other
452 data, e.g., satellite images, more recent coastline data, etc. We are
453 aware of such mismatches but cannot undertake band-aid solutions each
454 time this occurs.
455 Some users of pscoast will not be satisfied with what they find for the
457 Antarctic shoreline. In Antarctica, the boundary between ice and ocean
458 varies seasonally and inter-annually. There are some areas of permanent
459 shelf ice. In addition to these time-varying ice-ocean boundaries,
460 there are also shelf ice grounding lines where ice goes from floating
461 on the sea to sitting on land, and lines delimiting areas of rock out‐
462 crop. For consistency's sake, we have used the World Vector Shoreline
463 throughout the world in pscoast, as described in the GMT Cookbook Ap‐
464 pendix K. Users who need specific boundaries in Antarctica should get
465 the Antarctic Digital Database, prepared by the British Antarctic Sur‐
466 vey, Scott Polar Research Institute, World Conservation Monitoring Cen‐
467 tre, under the auspices of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic
468 Research. This data base contains various kinds of limiting lines for
469 Antarctica and is available on CD-ROM. It is published by the Scien‐
470 tific Committee on Antarctic Research, Scott Polar Research Institute,
471 Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1ER, United Kingdom.
472
474 gmt, gmt.conf, gmtcolors, grdlandmask, psbasemap
475
477 2019, P. Wessel, W. H. F. Smith, R. Scharroo, J. Luis, and F. Wobbe
4785.4.5 Feb 24, 2019 PSCOAST(1)