pscoast
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 ]
[ -Lruler ]
[ -M ]
[ -Nborder[/pen] ]
[ -O ]
[ -P ]
[ -Q ]
[ -Sfill|c ]
[ -Trose ]
[ -Tmag_rose ]
[ -U[just/dx/dy/][c|label] ]
[ -V[level] ]
[ -W[level/]pen ]
[ -Xx_offset ]
[ -Yy_offset ]
[ -bo<binary> ]
[ -ccopies ]
[ -p<flags> ]
[ -t<transp> ]
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 ...)
- Select map projection.
- -R[unit]west/east/south/north[/zmin/zmax][r]
- west, east, south, and north specify the region of interest,
and you may specify them in decimal degrees or in
[+-]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. Using -Runit expects projected (Cartesian)
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 ...)
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
hierarchical 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 Antarctica; append +ag to instead
select the ice grounding line as coastline. For expert users who wish to
print their own Antarctica 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 feature is less than percent. See
GSHHG INFORMATION below for more details.
- -B[p|s]parameters (more ...)
- Set map boundary intervals.
- -C[l|r/]fill
- Set the shade, color, or pattern for lakes and river-lakes [Default
is the fill chosen for “wet” 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 available [abort if not found].
Alternatively, choose (a)uto to automatically select the best
resolution given the chosen map scale.
- -Ecode1,code2,...[+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 plotting 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 extension].
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 separate 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[+cclearances][+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
indicates 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 “dry” 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 ...)
- Set z-axis scaling; same syntax as -Jx.
- -K (more ...)
- Do not finalize the PostScript plot.
- -L[g|j|J|n|x]refpoint+c[slon/]slat+wlength[e|f|k|M|n|u][+aalign][+f][+l[label]][+u]
- Draws a simple map scale centered on the reference point specified
using one of four coordinate systems:
(1) Use -Dg for map (user) coordinates, (2) use -Dj or -DJ for setting refpoint via
a 2-char justification code that refers to the (invisible) map domain rectangle,
(3) use -Dn for normalized (0-1) coordinates, or (4) use -Dx 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 “fancy” scale [Default is plain].
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).
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 ...)
- Append to existing PostScript plot.
- -P (more ...)
- Select “Portrait” 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 “wet” 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]][+jjustify][+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 systems:
(1) Use g for map (user) coordinates, (2) use j for setting 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 justification code justify (see pstext).
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 point in
the direction implied by justify (or the direction implied by -Dj or -DJ).
Append +wwidthto set the width of the rose in plot coordinates (inches, cm, etc.).
Add +f to get a “fancy” 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-separated strings to override the default.
See -F on how to place a panel behind the scale.
-Tm[g|j|J|n|x]refpoint+wwidth[+ddec[/dlabel]]][+ipen][+jjustify][+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 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 justification code
justify (see
pstext).
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 point in
the direction implied by
justify (or the direction implied by
-Dj or
-DJ).
Append
+wwidthto set the width of the rose in plot coordinates (inches, cm, etc.).
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 are 30/5/1 degrees; override these settings by appending
+tints, and append six intervals to set both the geographic and magnetic
intervals. Number GMT default parameters control pens, fonts, and color;
see the Map Embellishment section in the Cookbook.
See
-F on how to place a panel behind the scale.
- -U[just/dx/dy/][c|label] (more ...)
- Draw GMT time stamp logo on plot.
- -V[level] (more ...)
- Select verbosity level [c].
- -W[level/]pen (more ...)
- 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 represent coastline,
lakeshore, island-in-lake shore, and lake-in-island-in-lake shore.
Repeat -W as needed. When specific 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 ...)
- Shift plot origin.
- -bo[ncols][type] (more ...)
- Select native binary output.
- -ccopies (more ...)
- Specify number of plot copies [Default is 1].
- -p[x|y|z]azim/elev[/zlevel][+wlon0/lat0[/z0]][+vx0/y0] (more ...)
- Select perspective view.
- -t[transp] (more ...)
- Set PDF transparency level in percent.
- -^ or just -
- Print a short message about the syntax of the command, then exits (NOTE: on Windows use just -).
- -+ or just +
- Print an extensive usage (help) message, including the explanation 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
options, then exits.
- --version
- Print GMT version and exit.
- --show-datadir
- Print full path to GMT share directory and exit.
Examples
To plot a green Africa with white outline on blue background, with
permanent 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 -Gp100/28 > 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 directory. Comment lines (#) and blank lines are allowed.
The desired file is then sought for in the alternate directories.
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 correcting 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 database using the Douglas-Peucker line-simplification
algorithm. The classification 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 projection 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 outcrop. For consistency’s sake, we have used the World Vector
Shoreline throughout the world in pscoast, as described in the GMT
Cookbook Appendix K. Users who need specific boundaries in Antarctica
should get the Antarctic Digital Database, prepared by the British
Antarctic Survey, Scott Polar Research Institute, World Conservation
Monitoring Centre, 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
Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, Scott Polar Research
Institute, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1ER, United Kingdom.