pscoast(1) GMT pscoast(1)
NAME
pscoast - Plot continents, shorelines, rivers, and borders on maps
SYNOPSIS
pscoast -Jparameters
-Rregion [ -Aarea ] [ -B[p|s]parameters ] [ -C[l|r/]fill ] [
-Dresolution[+] ] [ -Edcw ] [ -Fbox ] [ -Gfill|c ] [ -Iriver[/pen]
] [ -Jz|Zparameters ] [ -K ] [ -Lscalebar ] [ -M ] [ -Nbor-
der[/pen] ] [ -O ] [ -P ] [ -Q ] [ -Sfill|c ] [ -Trose ] [
-Tmag_rose ] [ -U[stamp] ] [ -V[level] ] [ -W[level/]pen ] [
-Xx_offset ] [ -Yy_offset ] [ -bobinary ] [ -pflags ] [ -ttransp ]
Note: No space is allowed between the option flag and the associated
arguments.
DESCRIPTION
pscoast plots grayshaded, colored, or textured land-masses [or
water-masses] on maps and [optionally] draws coastlines, rivers, and
political boundaries. Alternatively, it can (1) issue clip paths that
will contain all land or all water areas, or (2) dump the data to an
ASCII table. The data files come in 5 different resolutions: (f)ull,
(h)igh, (i)ntermediate, (l)ow, and (c)rude. The full resolution files
amount to more than 55 Mb of data and provide great detail; for maps of
larger geographical extent it is more economical to use one of the
other resolutions. If the user selects to paint the land-areas and does
not specify fill of water-areas then the latter will be transparent
(i.e., earlier graphics drawn in those areas will not be overwritten).
Likewise, if the water-areas are painted and no land fill is set then
the land-areas will be transparent. A map projection must be supplied.
The PostScript code is written to standard output.
REQUIRED ARGUMENTS
-Jparameters (more a|)
Select map projection.
-Rwest/east/south/north[/zmin/zmax][+r][+uunit]
west, east, south, and north specify the region of interest, and
you may specify them in decimal degrees or in
[A+-]dd:mm[:ss.xxx][W|E|S|N] format Append +r if lower left and
upper right map coordinates are given instead of w/e/s/n. The
two shorthands -Rg and -Rd stand for global domain (0/360 and
-180/+180 in longitude respectively, with -90/+90 in latitude).
Alternatively for grid creation, give Rcodelon/lat/nx/ny, where
code is a 2-character combination of L, C, R (for left, center,
or right) and T, M, B for top, middle, or bottom. e.g., BL for
lower left. This indicates which point on a rectangular region
the lon/lat coordinate refers to, and the grid dimensions nx and
ny with grid spacings via -I is used to create the corresponding
region. Alternatively, specify the name of an existing grid
file and the -R settings (and grid spacing, if applicable) are
copied from the grid. Appending +uunit expects projected (Carte-
sian) coordinates compatible with chosen -J and we inversely
project to determine actual rectangular geographic region. For
perspective view (-p), optionally append /zmin/zmax. In case of
perspective view (-p), a z-range (zmin, zmax) can be appended to
indicate the third dimension. This needs to be done only when
using the -Jz option, not when using only the -p option. In the
latter case a perspective view of the plane is plotted, with no
third dimension.
For perspective view p, optionally append /zmin/zmax. (more a|)
OPTIONAL ARGUMENTS
-Amin_area[/min_level/max_level][+ag|i|s|S][+r|l][+ppercent]
Features with an area smaller than min_area in km^2 or of hier-
archical level that is lower than min_level or higher than
max_level will not be plotted [Default is 0/0/4 (all features)].
Level 2 (lakes) contains regular lakes and wide river bodies
which we normally include as lakes; append +r to just get
river-lakes or +l to just get regular lakes. By default (+ai)
we select the ice shelf boundary as the coastline for Antarc-
tica; append +ag to instead select the ice grounding line as
coastline. For expert users who wish to print their own Antarc-
tica coastline and islands via psxy you can use +as to skip all
GSHHG features below 60S or +aS to instead skip all features
north of 60S. Finally, append +ppercent to exclude polygons
whose percentage area of the corresponding full-resolution fea-
ture is less than percent. See GSHHG INFORMATION below for more
details.
-B[p|s]parameters (more a|)
Set map boundary frame and axes attributes.
-C[l|r/]fill
Set the shade, color, or pattern for lakes and river-lakes
[Default is the fill chosen for aweta areas (-S)]. Optionally,
specify separate fills by prepending l/ for lakes and r/ for
river-lakes, repeating the -C option as needed.
-Dresolution[+]
Selects the resolution of the data set to use ((f)ull, (h)igh,
(i)ntermediate, (l)ow, and (c)rude). The resolution drops off by
80% between data sets [Default is l]. Append + to automatically
select a lower resolution should the one requested not be avail-
able [abort if not found]. Alternatively, choose (a)uto to
automatically select the best resolution given the chosen map
scale.
-Ecode1,code2,^<i>a|[+l|L][+gfill][+ppen][+r|R[incs]]
Select painting or dumping country polygons from the Digital
Chart of the World. This is another dataset independent of
GSHHG and hence the -A and -D options do not apply. Append one
or more comma-separated countries using the 2-character ISO
3166-1 alpha-2 convention. To select a state of a country (if
available), append .state, e.g, US.TX for Texas. To specify a
whole continent, prepend = to any of the continent codes AF
(Africa), AN (Antarctica), AS (Asia), EU (Europe), OC (Oceania),
NA (North America), or SA (South America). Append +l to just
list the countries and their codes [no data extraction or plot-
ting takes place]. Use +L to see states/territories for
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and the US. Use +r to
obtain the bounding box coordinates from the polygon(s). Append
inc, xinc/yinc, or winc/einc/sinc/ninc to adjust the region to
be a multiple of these steps [no adjustment]. Use +R to extend
the region outward by adding these increments instead [no exten-
sion]. Append +ppen to draw polygon outlines [no outline] and
+gfill to fill them [no fill]. One of +p|g must be specified
unless +r, +R, or -M is in effect, and only one -E option can be
given. You may repeat -E to give different groups of items sep-
arate pen/fill settings. If modifiers +r or +R are used and
neither -J nor -M is set then we just print the -Rwesn string.
-F[+cclear-
ances][+gfill][+i[[gap/]pen]][+p[pen]][+r[radius]][+s[[dx/dy/][shade]]]
Without further options, draws a rectangular border around the
map scale or rose using MAP_FRAME_PEN; specify a different pen
with +ppen. Add +gfill to fill the logo box [no fill]. Append
+cclearance where clearance is either gap, xgap/ygap, or
lgap/rgap/bgap/tgap where these items are uniform, separate in
x- and y-direction, or individual side spacings between logo and
border. Append +i to draw a secondary, inner border as well. We
use a uniform gap between borders of 2p and the MAP_DEFAULT_PEN
unless other values are specified. Append +r to draw rounded
rectangular borders instead, with a 6p corner radius. You can
override this radius by appending another value. Finally, append
+s to draw an offset background shaded region. Here, dx/dy indi-
cates the shift relative to the foreground frame [4p/-4p] and
shade sets the fill style to use for shading [gray50]. Requires
-L or -T. If both -L or -T, you may repeat -F after each of
these.
-Gfill|c
Select filling or clipping of adrya areas. Append the shade,
color, or pattern; or use -Gc for clipping [Default is no fill].
-Iriver[/pen]
Draw rivers. Specify the type of rivers and [optionally] append
pen attributes [Default pen: width = default, color = black,
style = solid].
Choose from the list of river types below; repeat option -I as
often as necessary.
0 = Double-lined rivers (river-lakes)
1 = Permanent major rivers
2 = Additional major rivers
3 = Additional rivers
4 = Minor rivers
5 = Intermittent rivers - major
6 = Intermittent rivers - additional
7 = Intermittent rivers - minor
8 = Major canals
9 = Minor canals
10 = Irrigation canals
You can also choose from several preconfigured river groups:
a = All rivers and canals (0-10)
A = All rivers and canals except river-lakes (1-10)
r = All permanent rivers (0-4)
R = All permanent rivers except river-lakes (1-4)
i = All intermittent rivers (5-7)
c = All canals (8-10)
-Jz|Zparameters (more a|)
Set z-axis scaling; same syntax as -Jx.
-K (more a|)
Do not finalize the PostScript plot.
-L[g|j|J|n|x]ref-
point+c[slon/]slat+wlength[e|f|k|M|n|u][+aalign][+f][+jjus-
tify][+l[label]][+odx[/dy]][+u]
Draws a simple map scale centered on the reference point speci-
fied using one of four coordinate systems: (1) Use -Lg for map
(user) coordinates, (2) use -Lj or -LJ for setting refpoint via
a 2-char justification code that refers to the (invisible) map
domain rectangle, (3) use -Ln for normalized (0-1) coordinates,
or (4) use -Lx for plot coordinates (inches, cm, etc.). Scale
is calculated for latitude slat (optionally supply longitude
slon for oblique projections [Default is central meridian]),
length is in km, or append unit from e|f|k|M|n|u. Change the
label alignment with +aalign (choose among l(eft), r(ight),
t(op), and b(ottom)). Append +f to get a afancya scale [Default
is plain]. By default, the anchor point on the map scale is
assumed to be the center of the scale (MC), but this can be
changed by appending +j followed by a 2-char justification code
justify (see pstext for list and explanation of codes). Append
+l to select the default label, which equals the distance unit
(meter, foot, km, mile, nautical mile, US survey foot) and is
justified on top of the scale [t]. Change this by giving your
own label (append +llabel). Add +o to offset the map scale by
dx/dy away from the refpoint in the direction implied by justify
(or the direction implied by -Dj or -DJ). Select +u to append
the unit to all distance annotations along the scale (for the
plain scale, +u will instead select the unit to be appended to
the distance length). Note: Use FONT_LABEL to change the label
font and FONT_ANNOT_PRIMARY to change the annotation font. The
height of the map scale is controlled by MAP_SCALE_HEIGHT, and
the pen thickness is set by MAP_TICK_PEN_PRIMARY. See -F on how
to place a panel behind the scale.
-M Dumps a single multisegment ASCII (or binary, see -bo) file to
standard output. No plotting occurs. Specify one of -E, -I, -N
or -W. Note: if -M is used with -E then -R or the +r modifier
to -E are not required as we automatically determine the region
given the selected geographic entities.
-Nborder[/pen]
Draw political boundaries. Specify the type of boundary and
[optionally] append pen attributes [Default pen: width =
default, color = black, style = solid].
Choose from the list of boundaries below. Repeat option -N as
often as necessary.
1 = National boundaries
2 = State boundaries within the Americas
3 = Marine boundaries
a = All boundaries (1-3)
-O (more a|)
Append to existing PostScript plot.
-P (more a|)
Select aPortraita plot orientation.
-Q Mark end of existing clip path. No projection information is
needed. Also supply -X and -Y settings if you have moved since
the clip started.
-Sfill|c
Select filling or clipping of aweta areas. Append the shade,
color, or pattern; or use -Sc for clipping [Default is no fill].
-Td[g|j|J|n|x]refpoint+wwidth[+f[level]][+jjus-
tify][+lw,e,s,n][+odx[/dy]]
-Td draws a map directional rose on the map at the location
defined by the reference and anchor points: Give the reference
point on the map for the rose using one of four coordinate sys-
tems: (1) Use g for map (user) coordinates, (2) use j for set-
ting refpoint via a 2-char justification code that refers to the
(invisible) map domain rectangle, (3) use n for normalized (0-1)
coordinates, or (4) use x for plot coordinates (inches, cm,
etc.) [Default]. You can offset the reference point by dx/dy in
the direction implied by justify. By default, the anchor point
on the scale is assumed to be the center of the rose (MC), but
this can be changed by appending +j followed by a 2-char justi-
fication code justify (see pstext for list and explanation of
codes). Note: If -Dj is used then justify defaults to the same
as refpoint, if -DJ is used then justify defaults to the mirror
opposite of refpoint. Add +o to offset the color scale by dx/dy
away from the refpoint in the direction implied by justify (or
the direction implied by -Dj or -DJ). Append +wwidth to set the
width of the rose in plot coordinates (in inches, cm, or
points). Add +f to get a afancya rose, and specify in level
what you want drawn. The default [1] draws the two principal
E-W, N-S orientations, 2 adds the two intermediate NW-SE and
NE-SW orientations, while 3 adds the eight minor orientations
WNW-ESE, NNW-SSE, NNE-SSW, and ENE-WSW. Label the cardinal
points W,E,S,N by adding +l and append your own four comma-sepa-
rated strings to override the default. Skip a specific label by
leaving it blank. See Placing-dir-map-roses and -F on how to
place a panel behind the scale.
-Tm[g|j|J|n|x]refpoint+wwidth[+ddec[/dlabel]]][+ipen][+jjus-
tify][+lw,e,s,n][+ppen][+tints][+odx[/dy]]
-Tm draws a map magnetic rose on the map at the location defined by
the reference and anchor points: Give the reference point on the map
for the rose using one of four coordinate systems: (1) Use g for map
(user) coordinates, (2) use j for setting refpoint via a 2-char jus-
tification code that refers to the (invisible) map domain rectangle,
(3) use n for normalized (0-1) coordinates, or (4) use x for plot
coordinates (inches, cm, etc.) [Default]. You can offset the refer-
ence point by dx/dy in the direction implied by justify. By
default, the anchor point on the scale is assumed to be the center
of the rose (MC), but this can be changed by appending +j followed
by a 2-char justification code justify (see pstext for list and
explanation of codes). Note: If -Dj is used then justify defaults
to the same as refpoint, if -DJ is used then justify defaults to the
mirror opposite of refpoint. Add +o to offset the color scale by
dx/dy away from the refpoint in the direction implied by justify (or
the direction implied by -Dj or -DJ). Append +wwidth to set the
width of the rose in plot coordinates (in inches, cm, or points).
Use +d to assign the magnetic declination and set dlabel, which is a
label for the magnetic compass needle (Leave empty to format a label
from dec, or give - to bypass labeling). With +d, both directions to
geographic and magnetic north are plotted [Default is geographic
only]. If the north label is * then a north star is plotted instead
of the north label. Annotation and two levels of tick intervals for
both geographic and magnetic directions default to 30/5/1 degrees;
override these settings by appending +tints, and append six
slash-separated intervals to set both the geographic (first three)
and magnetic (last three) intervals. Label the cardinal points
W,E,S,N by adding +l and append your own four comma-separated
strings to override the default. Skip a specific label by leaving
it blank. Number GMT default parameters control pens, fonts, and
color. See Placing-dir-map-roses and -F on how to place a panel
behind the scale.
-U[[just]/dx/dy/][c|label] (more a|)
Draw GMT time stamp logo on plot.
-V[level] (more a|)
Select verbosity level [c].
-W[level/]pen (more a|)
Draw shorelines [Default is no shorelines]. Append pen
attributes [Defaults: width = default, color = black, style =
solid] which apply to all four levels. To set the pen for each
level differently, prepend level/, where level is 1-4 and repre-
sent coastline, lakeshore, island-in-lake shore, and
lake-in-island-in-lake shore. Repeat -W as needed. When spe-
cific level pens are set, those not listed will not be drawn
[Default draws all levels; but see -A].
-X[a|c|f|r][x-shift[u]]
-Y[a|c|f|r][y-shift[u]] (more a|)
Shift plot origin.
-bo[ncols][type] (more a|)
Select native binary output.
-p[x|y|z]azim[/elev[/zlevel]][+wlon0/lat0[/z0]][+vx0/y0] (more a|)
Select perspective view.
-t[transp] (more a|)
Set PDF transparency level in percent.
-^ or just -
Print a short message about the syntax of the command, then
exits (NOTE: on Windows just use -).
-+ or just +
Print an extensive usage (help) message, including the explana-
tion of any module-specific option (but not the GMT common
options), then exits.
-? or no arguments
Print a complete usage (help) message, including the explanation
of all options, then exits.
EXAMPLES
To plot a green Africa with white outline on blue background, with per-
manent major rivers in thick blue pen, additional major rivers in thin
blue pen, and national borders as dashed lines on a Mercator map at
scale 0.1 inch/degree, use
gmt pscoast -R-30/30/-40/40 -Jm0.1i -B5 -I1/1p,blue -N1/0.25p,- \
-I2/0.25p,blue -W0.25p,white -Ggreen -Sblue -P > africa.ps
To plot Iceland using the lava pattern (# 28) at 100 dots per inch, on
a Mercator map at scale 1 cm/degree, run
gmt pscoast -R-30/-10/60/65 -Jm1c -B5 -Gp28+r100 > iceland.ps
To initiate a clip path for Africa so that the subsequent colorimage of
gridded topography is only seen over land, using a Mercator map at
scale 0.1 inch/degree, use
gmt pscoast -R-30/30/-40/40 -Jm0.1i -B5 -Gc -P -K > africa.ps
gmt grdimage -Jm0.1i etopo5.nc -Ccolors.cpt -O -K >> africa.ps
gmt pscoast -Q -O >> africa.ps
To plot Great Britain, Italy, and France in blue with a red outline and
Spain, Portugal and Greece in yellow (no outline), and pick up the plot
domain form the extents of these countries, use
gmt pscoast -JM6i -P -Baf -EGB,IT,FR+gblue+p0.25p,red+r -EES,PT,GR+gyellow > map.ps
To extract a high-resolution coastline data table for Iceland to be
used in your analysis, try
gmt pscoast -R-26/-12/62/68 -Dh -W -M > iceland.txt
pscoast will first look for coastline files in directory
$GMT_SHAREDIR/coast If the desired file is not found, it will look for
the file $GMT_SHAREDIR/coastline.conf. This file may contain any number
of records that each holds the full pathname of an alternative direc-
tory. Comment lines (#) and blank lines are allowed. The desired file
is then sought for in the alternate directories.
GSHHS INFORMATION
The coastline database is GSHHG (formerly GSHHS) which is compiled from
three sources: World Vector Shorelines (WVS), CIA World Data Bank II
(WDBII), and Atlas of the Cryosphere (AC, for Antarctica only). Apart
from Antarctica, all level-1 polygons (ocean-land boundary) are derived
from the more accurate WVS while all higher level polygons (level 2-4,
representing land/lake, lake/island-in-lake, and
island-in-lake/lake-in-island-in-lake boundaries) are taken from WDBII.
The Antarctica coastlines come in two flavors: ice-front or grounding
line, selectable via the -A option. Much processing has taken place to
convert WVS, WDBII, and AC data into usable form for GMT: assembling
closed polygons from line segments, checking for duplicates, and cor-
recting for crossings between polygons. The area of each polygon has
been determined so that the user may choose not to draw features
smaller than a minimum area (see -A); one may also limit the highest
hierarchical level of polygons to be included (4 is the maximum). The 4
lower-resolution databases were derived from the full resolution data-
base using the Douglas-Peucker line-simplification algorithm. The clas-
sification of rivers and borders follow that of the WDBII. See the GMT
Cookbook and Technical Reference Appendix K for further details.
BUGS
The options to fill (-C -G -S) may not always work if the Azimuthal
equidistant projection is chosen (-Je|E). If the antipole of the pro-
jection is in the oceans it will most likely work. If not, try to avoid
using projection center coordinates that are even multiples of the
coastline bin size (1, 2, 5, 10, and 20 degrees for f, h, i, l, c,
respectively). This projection is not supported for clipping.
The political borders are for the most part 1970s-style but have been
updated to reflect more recent border rearrangements in Europe and
elsewhere. Let us know if you find something out of date.
The full-resolution coastlines are also from a digitizing effort in the
1970-80s and it is difficult to assess the accuracy. Users who zoom in
close enough may find that the GSHHG coastline is not matching other
data, e.g., satellite images, more recent coastline data, etc. We are
aware of such mismatches but cannot undertake band-aid solutions each
time this occurs.
Some users of pscoast will not be satisfied with what they find for the
Antarctic shoreline. In Antarctica, the boundary between ice and ocean
varies seasonally and inter-annually. There are some areas of permanent
shelf ice. In addition to these time-varying ice-ocean boundaries,
there are also shelf ice grounding lines where ice goes from floating
on the sea to sitting on land, and lines delimiting areas of rock out-
crop. For consistencyas sake, we have used the World Vector Shoreline
throughout the world in pscoast, as described in the GMT Cookbook Ap-
pendix K. Users who need specific boundaries in Antarctica should get
the Antarctic Digital Database, prepared by the British Antarctic Sur-
vey, Scott Polar Research Institute, World Conservation Monitoring Cen-
tre, under the auspices of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic
Research. This data base contains various kinds of limiting lines for
Antarctica and is available on CD-ROM. It is published by the Scien-
tific Committee on Antarctic Research, Scott Polar Research Institute,
Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1ER, United Kingdom.
SEE ALSO
gmt(1), gmt.conf(5), gmtcolors(5), grdlandmask(1), psbasemap(1)
COPYRIGHT
2017, P. Wessel, W. H. F. Smith, R. Scharroo, J. Luis, and F. Wobbe
5.4.2 Jun 24, 2017 pscoast(1)
gmt5 5.4.2 - Generated Thu Jun 29 15:04:08 CDT 2017