GEBCO's Global Gridded Bathymetric Data Sets: Seabed 2030 Project Nippon Foundation Gebco
GEBCO's Global Gridded Bathymetric Data Sets: Seabed 2030 Project Nippon Foundation Gebco
GEBCO's Global Gridded Bathymetric Data Sets: Seabed 2030 Project Nippon Foundation Gebco
1 Introduction
This documentation provides information on GEBCO’s global bathymetric grids developed
since 2019, through the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project. This is a
collaborative project between the Nippon Foundation of Japan and GEBCO. The Seabed
2030 Project aims to bring together all available bathymetric data to produce the definitive
map of the world ocean floor and make it available to all.
The Nippon Foundation is a non-profit philanthropic organisation active around the world.
GEBCO is an international group of mapping experts developing a range of bathymetric data
sets and data products, operating under the joint auspices of the International Hydrographic
Organization (IHO) and UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC).
The latest GEBCO grid, GEBCO_2022, was published in June 2022 and is a global terrain
model for ocean and land, providing elevation data, in meters, on a 15 arc-second interval
grid.
For polar regions data are available in polar projection co-ordinates, see section 2.5 below.
GEBCO’s grids are available to download according to the Terms of Use provided in Section
7 below.
2 Grid development
GEBCO’s global grids are continuous terrain models for ocean and land with a spatial
resolution of 15 arc seconds. The data values are pixel-centre registered i.e. they refer to
elevations, in meters, at the centre of grid cells.
Please note that for the 2022 release of the GEBCO grid, data are available in polar
projection co-ordinates for polar regions.
Below, information is given about the generation of GEBCO grids.
2.1 GEBCO_2022
The GEBCO_2022 Grid is a continuous, global terrain model for ocean and land with a
spatial resolution of 15 arc seconds. The data values are pixel-centre registered i.e. they refer
to elevations, in meters, at the centre of grid cells.
The grid uses as a ‘base’ Version 2.4 of the SRTM15+ data set between latitudes of 50°
South and 60° North. This data set is a fusion of land topography with measured and
estimated seafloor topography. It uses predicted depths based on the V31 gravity model
[Sandwell et al., 2019]. This version of SRTM15+ is similar to version 2.1 [Tozer et al.,
2019] but also includes:
• data from 905 new multibeam sonar cruises, archived at the US National Centers for
Environmental Information.
• nine large composite grids from IFREMER for the Gulf of Aden (Hebert et al., 2001),
the Lesser Antilles volcanic arc (Talbot & Loubrieu, 2020), French Guiana margin
(Loubrieu, 2019a), the Rodrigues triple junction (Mendel et al., 2000), the Kerguelen
plateau (Loubrieu, 2019b), Reunion island (Sisavath et al., 2011), Saint-Paul and
Amsterdam Islands (Loubrieu et al., 2020), the Southwest Indian ridge (Sauter &
Mendel, 2000), and the North Fiji basin (Ruellan, 2001).
The SRTM15+ base grid has been augmented with the gridded bathymetric data sets
developed by the four Seabed 2030 Regional Centers to produce the GEBCO_2022 Grid.
The Regional Centers have compiled gridded bathymetric data sets, largely based on
multibeam data, for their areas of responsibility. These regional grids were then provided to
the Global Center.
For areas outside of the polar regions (primarily south of 60°N and north of 50°S), these data
sets are in the form of 'sparse grids', i.e. only grid cells that contain data were populated. For
the polar regions, complete grids were provided due to the complexities of incorporating data
held in polar coordinates.
The compilation of the GEBCO_2022 Grid from these regional data grids was carried out at
the Global Center, with the aim of producing a seamless global terrain model.
For the 2020 and 2021 releases of the GEBCO grid, the data sets provided as sparse grids by
the Regional Centers were included on to the base grid without any blending. This led to
discontinuities at the boundary between the regional grids and the base grids in some areas,
largely in regions where the base grid is not constrained by measured data, i.e. areas of large
differences between the data sets.
For the 2022 Grid, the sparse regional grids have been included on to the base grid using a
‘remove-restore’ blending procedure (Smith and Sandwell, 1997; Becker, Sandwell and
Smith, 2009 and Hell and Jakobsson, 2011). This is a two-stage process of computing the
difference between the new data and the ‘base’ grid and then gridding the difference and
adding the difference back to the existing ‘base’ grid. The aim is to achieve a smooth
transition between the 'new' and 'base' data sets with the minimum of perturbation of the
existing base data set. However, please note that there may be differences between the 2022
and 2021 grid in regions outside areas of measured data due to the grid merging process.
For the polar data sets supplied in the form of complete grids these data sets were included
using feather blending techniques from GlobalMapper software version 23.1.0 made
available by Blue Marble Geographics.
Some additional edits were made to the final grid to remove erroneous values identified in the
previous grid and notified to the Global Center.
The GEBCO_2022 Grid includes data sets from a number of international and national data
repositories and regional mapping initiatives. Information on the data sets included in the grid
is given in our data contributors list.
Ice-surface elevation and under-ice topography
The GEBCO_2022 grid is made available in two versions, containing:
• land and ice surface elevation information
• under-ice topography information for Greenland and Antarctica
The information for ice-surface elevation and under-ice topography/bathymetry is taken from
IceBridge BedMachine Greenland, Version 4.6 (Morlighem, M. et al. 2017) and data based
on MEaSUREs BedMachine Antarctica, Version 2 (Morlighem, M. et al 2020).
Land Data
The land data in the GEBCO Grid are taken directly from SRTM15+ V2.4 data set for all
areas outside the Polar regions – see the SRTM15_plus data set documentation for more
information.
South of 60°S, the land/ ice-surface elevation topography is largely determined from
MEaSUREs BedMachine Antarctica, Version 2 (Morlighem, M. et al 2020). For areas north
of 60°N, land data are largely taken from the Global Multi-resolution Terrain Elevation Data
2010 (GMTED2010) data set (Danielson, J.J., and Gesch, D.B., 2011).
2.2 GEBCO_2021
The GEBCO_2021 Grid was released in July 2021. It uses as a ‘base’ Version 2.2 of the
SRTM15+ data set between latitudes of 50° South and 60° North. This data set is a fusion of
land topography with measured and estimated seafloor topography. This version of
SRTM15+ is similar to version 2.1 [Tozer et al., 2019] with minor updates. Version 2.2 uses
predicted depths based on the V29 gravity model [Sandwell et al., 2019] and approximately
400 small areas containing suspect data were visually identified and removed from the grid.
The SRTM15+ base grid has been augmented with the gridded bathymetric data sets
developed by the four Seabed 2030 Regional Centers to produce the GEBCO_2021 Grid.
The Regional Centers have compiled gridded bathymetric data sets, largely based on
multibeam data, for their areas of responsibility. These regional grids were then provided to
the Global Center.
For areas outside of the polar regions (primarily south of 60°N and north of 50°S), these data
sets are in the form of 'sparse grids', i.e. only grid cells that contain data were populated. For
the polar regions, complete grids were provided due to the complexities of incorporating data
held in polar coordinates.
The compilation of the GEBCO_2021 Grid from these regional data grids was carried out at
the Global Center, with the aim of producing a seamless global terrain model.
The data sets provided as sparse grids by the Regional Centers were included on to the base
grid without any blending, i.e. grid cells in the base grid were replaced with data from the
sparse grids. This was with aim of avoiding creating edge effects, ‘ridges and ripples’, at the
boundaries between the sparse grids and base grid during the blending process used
previously. In addition, this allows a clear identification of the data source within the grid,
with no cells being ‘blended’ values. Routines from the Generic Mapping Tools (GMT)
system were used to do the merging of the data sets.
For the polar data sets, and the adjoining North Sea area, supplied in the form of complete
grids these data sets were included using feather blending techniques from GlobalMapper
software version 11.0 made available by Blue Marble Geographics.
Some additional edits were made to the final grid to remove erroneous values identified in the
previous grid and notified to the Global Centre.
The GEBCO_2021 Grid includes data sets from a number of international and national data
repositories and regional mapping initiatives. Access a list of the data sets included in the
GEBCO_2021 Grid.
Land Data
The land data in the GEBCO_2021 Grid are taken directly from SRTM15+ V2.2 data set for
all areas outside the Polar regions – see the SRTM15_plus data set documentation for more
information.
South of 60°S, the land/ ice-surface elevation topography is largely determined from
MEaSUREs BedMachine Antarctica, Version 2 (Morlighem, M. et al 2020). For areas north
of 60°N, land data are largely taken from the Global Multi-resolution Terrain Elevation Data
2010 (GMTED2010) data set (Danielson, J.J., and Gesch, D.B., 2011).
2.3 GEBCO_2020
The GEBCO_2020 Grid was released in May 2020. It uses as a ‘base’ Version 2 of the
SRTM15+ data set (Tozer et al, 2019). This data set is a fusion of land topography with
measured and estimated seafloor topography. It is augmented with the gridded bathymetric
data sets developed by the four Seabed 2030 Regional Centers.
The Regional Centers have compiled gridded bathymetric data sets, largely based on
multibeam data, for their areas of responsibility. These regional grids were then provided to
the Global Center.
For areas outside of the polar regions (primarily south of 60°N and north of 50°S), these data
sets are in the form of 'sparse grids', i.e. only grid cells that contain data were populated. For
the polar regions, complete grids were provided due to the complexities of incorporating data
held in polar coordinates.
The compilation of the GEBCO_2020 Grid from these regional data grids was carried out at
the Global Center, with the aim of producing a seamless global terrain model.
In contrast to the development of the previous GEBCO grid, GEBCO_2019, the data sets
provided as sparse grids by the Regional Centers were included on to the base grid without
any blending, i.e. grid cells in the base grid were replaced with data from the sparse grids.
This was with aim of avoiding creating edge effects, ‘ridges and ripples’, at the boundaries
between the sparse grids and base grid during the blending process used previously. In
addition, this allows a clear identification of the data source within the grid, with no cells
being ‘blended’ values. Routines from Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) system were used to
do the merging of the data sets.
For the polar data sets, and the adjoining North Sea area, supplied in the form of complete
grids these data sets were included using feather blending techniques from GlobalMapper
software version 11.0 made available by Blue Marble Geographic.
Some additional edits were made to the final grid to remove erroneous values identified in the
previous grid and notified to the Global Centre.
The GEBCO_2020 Grid includes data sets from a number of international and national data
repositories and regional mapping initiatives. Access a list of the data sets included in the
GEBCO_2020 Grid.
Land Data
The land data in the GEBCO Grid are taken directly from SRTM15+ V2 data set for all areas
outside the Polar regions.
South of 60°S, the land topography is largely determined from Bedmap2 (Fretwell et al,
2013). For areas north of 60°N, land data are taken from the Global Multi-resolution Terrain
Elevation Data 2010 (GMTED2010) data set.
2.4 GEBCO_2019
The GEBCO_2019 Grid was released in April 2019. It uses as a ‘base’ Version 1 of the
SRTM15+ data set (Olson et al, 2014). This data set is a fusion of land topography with
measured and estimated seafloor topography. It is largely based on version 11 of SRTM30+
(Becker et al, 2009; Sandwell et al, 2014), augmented with the gridded bathymetric data sets
developed by the four Seabed 2030 Regional Centers. The published data were recalculated
on a cell-registered grid for use by GEBCO.
The Seabed 2030 Regional Centers have compiled gridded bathymetric data sets, largely
based on multibeam data, on a sub-set of the global grid for their areas of responsibility.
These regional grids were then provided to the Global Center. For areas outside of the polar
regions (primarily south of 60N and north of 50S), these data sets are in the form of 'sparse
grids', i.e. only grid cells that contain data were populated. For the polar regions, complete
grids were provided due to the complexities of incorporating data held in polar coordinates.
The compilation of the GEBCO_2019 Grid from these regional data grids, with some
additional source data sets, was carried out at the Global Center, with the aim of producing a
seamless global terrain model.
The majority of the work, for the non-polar regions, was done using the 'remove-restore'
procedure (Smith and Sandwell, 1997; Becker, Sandwell and Smith, 2009 and Hell and
Jakobsson, 2011). This is a two stage process of computing the difference between the new
data and the 'base' grid, gridding the difference and adding this difference back to the existing
'base' grid. The aim is to achieve a smooth transition between the 'new' and 'base' data sets
with the minimum of perturbation of the existing base data set.
For the polar data sets, and the adjoining North Sea are, supplied in the form of complete
grids these data sets were included using feather blending techniques from GlobalMapper
software version 11.0, made available by Blue Marble Geographic.
The GEBCO_2019 Grid includes data sets from a number of international and national data
repositories and regional mapping initiatives. Access information on the data sets included in
the GEBCO_2019 Grid.
Land Data
The land data in the GEBCO Grid are taken directly from SRTM15+ for all areas outside the
Polar regions.
South of 60°S, the land topography is determined from Bedmap2 (Fretwell et al, 2013).
TID Definition
0 Land
Direct measurements
10 Singlebeam - depth value collected by a single beam echo-sounder
11 Multibeam - depth value collected by a multibeam echo-sounder
12 Seismic - depth value collected by seismic methods
13 Isolated sounding - depth value that is not part of a regular survey or trackline
14 ENC sounding - depth value extracted from an Electronic Navigation Chart (ENC)
15 Lidar - depth derived from a bathymetric lidar sensor
16 Depth measured by optical light sensor
17 Combination of direct measurement methods
Indirect measurements
40 Predicted based on satellite-derived gravity data - depth value is an interpolated
value guided by satellite-derived gravity data
41 Interpolated based on a computer algorithm - depth value is an interpolated value
based on a computer algorithm (e.g. Generic Mapping Tools)
42 Digital bathymetric contours from charts - depth value taken from a bathymetric
contour data set
43 Digital bathymetric contours from ENCs - depth value taken from bathymetric
contours from an Electronic Navigation Chart (ENC)
44 Bathymetric sounding - depth value at this location is constrained by bathymetric
sounding(s) within a gridded data set where interpolation between sounding points
is guided by satellite-derived gravity data
45 Predicted based on helicopter/flight-derived gravity data
46 Depth estimated by calculating the draft of a grounded iceberg using satellite-
derived freeboard measurement.
Unknown
70 Pre-generated grid - depth value is taken from a pre-generated grid that is based on
mixed source data types, e.g. single beam, multibeam, interpolation etc.
71 Unknown source - depth value from an unknown source
72 Steering points - depth value used to constrain the grid in areas of poor data
coverage
4. GEBCO Grid, Vertical and horizontal datum
GEBCO’s global gridded data sets provide coverage, spanning 89° 59' 52.5''N, 179° 59'
52.5''W to 89° 59' 52.5''S, 179° 59' 52.5''E on a 15 arc-second geographic latitude and
longitude grid.
Each grid consists of 43200 rows x 86400 columns, giving 3,732,480,000 data points. The
data values are pixel-centre registered i.e. they refer to elevations, in meters, at the centre of
grid cells.
The GEBCO grid can be assumed to be relative to WGS84.
GEBCO's global elevation models are generated by the assimilation of heterogeneous data
types, assuming all of them to be referred to Mean Sea Level. However, in some shallow
water areas, the grid includes data from sources having a vertical datum other than mean sea
level.
5. Data Dissemination
GEBCO's gridded data sets are made available in a number of different formats as described
in the following sections.
Data for the GEBCO_2022 Grid are available in each format as a ‘one-click’ download
option from https://www.gebco.net/data_and_products/gridded_bathymetry_data/
Data for the global GEBCO_2021, GEBCO_2020 and GEBCO_2019 Grids are available in
netCDF format from https://www.gebco.net/data_and_products/historical_data_sets/.
User-defined subsets from all grids can also be accessed, in various formats, using the
download tool. The information below details the formats available for data sets accessed
through the download tool.
7.3 Disclaimer
• The GEBCO Grid should NOT be used for navigation or for any other purpose
involving safety at sea.
• The GEBCO Grid is made available 'as is'. While every effort has been made to
ensure reliability within the limits of present knowledge, the accuracy and
completeness of The GEBCO Grid cannot be guaranteed. No responsibility can be
accepted by GEBCO, IHO, IOC, or those involved in its creation or publication for
any consequential loss, injury or damage arising from its use or for determining the
fitness of The GEBCO Grid for any particular use.
• The GEBCO Grid is based on bathymetric data from many different sources of
varying quality and coverage.
• As The GEBCO Grid is an information product created by interpolation of measured
data, the resolution of The GEBCO Grid may be significantly different to that of the
resolution of the underlying measured data.