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A Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Geography Database from 2010-02-19 to 2017-06-15 (NCEI Accession 0304143)

Published by NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce | Catalog Last Checked: May 29, 2026 at 08:33 PM | Dataset Last Updated: May 14, 2025 at 12:00 AM
A Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Geography Database is a high-resolution geography data set amalgamated from three data bases in the public domain: World Vector Shorelines (WVS). CIA World Data Bank II (WDBII). Atlas of the Cryosphere (AC). The WVS is our basis for shorelines except for Antarctica while the WDBII is the basis for lakes, although there are instances where differences in coastline representations necessitated adding WDBII islands to GSHHG. The WDBII source also provides all political borders and rivers. The addition of AC since 2.3.0 allows us to offer two choices for Antarctica coastlines: Ice-front or Grounding line. These are encoded as levels 5 and 6, respectively and users of GSHHG can choose which set to use. GSHHG data have undergone extensive processing and should be free of internal inconsistencies such as erratic points and crossing segments. The shorelines are constructed entirely from hierarchically arranged closed polygons. A modified version of GSHHG is used by GMT, the Generic Mapping Tools. Starting with version 2.2.2, GSHHG has been released under the GNU Lesser General Public License. NCEI decommissioned the Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Geography Database in May 2025 with no further updates. Comments and questions may be sent to: ncei.info@noaa.gov.

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Complete Metadata
@type dcat:Dataset
accessLevel non-public
contactPoint 
                                            {
  "fn": "NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information",
  "@type": "vcard:Contact",
  "hasEmail": "mailto:ncei.info@noaa.gov"
}
describedByType application/octet-steam
description A Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Geography Database is a high-resolution geography data set amalgamated from three data bases in the public domain: World Vector Shorelines (WVS). CIA World Data Bank II (WDBII). Atlas of the Cryosphere (AC). The WVS is our basis for shorelines except for Antarctica while the WDBII is the basis for lakes, although there are instances where differences in coastline representations necessitated adding WDBII islands to GSHHG. The WDBII source also provides all political borders and rivers. The addition of AC since 2.3.0 allows us to offer two choices for Antarctica coastlines: Ice-front or Grounding line. These are encoded as levels 5 and 6, respectively and users of GSHHG can choose which set to use. GSHHG data have undergone extensive processing and should be free of internal inconsistencies such as erratic points and crossing segments. The shorelines are constructed entirely from hierarchically arranged closed polygons. A modified version of GSHHG is used by GMT, the Generic Mapping Tools. Starting with version 2.2.2, GSHHG has been released under the GNU Lesser General Public License. NCEI decommissioned the Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Geography Database in May 2025 with no further updates. Comments and questions may be sent to: ncei.info@noaa.gov.
distribution 
                                            [
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  },
  {
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    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Navigate directly to the URL for a descriptive web page with download links.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
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    "accessURL": "ftp://ftp-oceans.ncei.noaa.gov/nodc/archive/arc0234/0304143/",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "These data are available through the File Transfer Protocol (FTP). FTP is no longer supported by most internet browsers. You may copy and paste the FTP link to the data into an FTP client (e.g., FileZilla or WinSCP).",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
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    "title": "https://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pwessel/gshhg/Wessel+Smith_1996_JGR.pdf",
    "format": "PDF",
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identifier https://data.noaa.gov/waf/NOAA/NESDIS/ncei/accessions/iso/xml/0304143.xml
issued 2025-05-09T00:00:00.000+00:00
keyword 
                                            [
  "0304143",
  "SHORELINE",
  "satellite sensor - general",
  "atlas",
  "GIS product",
  "satellite data",
  "NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information",
  "NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information",
  "World-Wide Distribution",
  "oceanography",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > LAND SURFACE > GEOMORPHIC LANDFORMS/PROCESSES > COASTAL LANDFORMS > SHORELINES",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > COASTAL PROCESSES > SHORELINES",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE > SURFACE WATER > SURFACE WATER FEATURES > RIVERS/STREAMS",
  "ocean/land interface",
  "GEOGRAPHIC REGION > GLOBAL OCEAN",
  "M7MMF1"
]
landingPage https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/contact
language 
                                            []
license https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
modified 2025-05-14T00:00:00.000+00:00
publisher 
                                            {
  "name": "NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information",
  "@type": "org:Organization"
}
references 
                                            [
  "https://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pwessel/gshhg/Wessel+Smith_1996_JGR.pdf"
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rights otherRestrictions
spatial 180.0,-90.0,-180.0,90.0
temporal 2010-02-19T00:00:00+00:00/2017-06-15T00:00:00+00:00
title A Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Geography Database from 2010-02-19 to 2017-06-15 (NCEI Accession 0304143)

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