NAME
pscoast - To plot land-masses, water-masses, coastlines,
borders, and rivers
SYNOPSIS
pscoast - Jparameters - Rwest/east/south/north[r] [ -
Amin_area/max_level ] [ -Btickinfo ] [ -Cfill ] [ -Dresolu-
tion ] [ -Eazimuth/elevation ] [ -Fred/green/blue ] [ -Gfill
] [ - Iriver[/pen] ] [ - K ] [ -
L[f][x]lon0/lat0/slat/length[m|n] ] [ -Nborder[/pen] ] [ - O
] [ -P ] [ -Sfill ] [ -U[/dx/dy/][label] ] [ -V ] [ -Wpen ]
[ -Xx-shift ] [ -Yy-shift ] [ -ccopies ]
DESCRIPTION
pscoast plots grayshaded, colored, or textured land-masses
[or water-masses] on maps and [optionally] draws coastlines,
rivers, and political boundaries. The datafiles 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. The PostScript code is
written to standard output.
No space between the option flag and the associated
arguments. Use upper case for the option flags and lower
case for modifiers.
-J Selects the map projection. Scale is inch/degree,
1:xxxxx. or width in inch (upper case modifier).
CYLINDRICAL PROJECTIONS:
-Jclon0/lat0/scale (Cassini)
-Jmscale (Mercator - Greenwich and Equator as origin)
-Jmlon0/lat0/scale (Mercator - Give meridian and stan-
dard parallel)
-Joalon0/lat0/azimuth/scale (Oblique Mercator - point
and azimuth)
-Joblon0/lat0/lon1/lat1/scale (Oblique Mercator - two
points)
-Joclon0/lat0/lonp/latp/scale (Oblique Mercator - point
and pole)
- Jqlon0/scale (Equidistant Cylindrical Projection
(Plate Carree))
-Jtlon0/scale (TM - Transverse Mercator)
-Juzone/scale (UTM - Universal Transverse Mercator)
-Jylon0/lats/scale (Basic Cylindrical Projection)
AZIMUTHAL PROJECTIONS:
-Jalon0/lat0/scale (Lambert).
-Jelon0/lat0/scale (Equidistant).
-Jglon0/lat0/scale (Orthographic).
-Jslon0/lat0/scale (General Stereographic)
CONIC PROJECTIONS:
-Jblon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Albers)
-Jllon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Lambert)
MISCELLANEOUS PROJECTIONS:
-Jhlon0/scale (Hammer)
-Jilon0/scale (Sinusoidal)
-Jklon0/scale (Eckert VI)
-Jnlon0/scale (Robinson)
-Jrlon0/scale (Winkel Tripel)
-Jwlon0/scale (Mollweide)
NON-GEOGRAPHICAL PROJECTIONS:
-Jpscale (Linear projection for polar (theta,r) coordi-
nates)
-Jxx-scale[l|ppow][/y-scale[l|ppow]] (Linear, log, and
power scaling)
More details can be found in the psbasemap manpages.
-R west, east, south, and north specify the Region of
interest. To specify boundaries in degrees and minutes
[and seconds], use the dd:mm[:ss] format. Append r if
lower left and upper right map coordinates are given
instead of wesn.
OPTIONS
-A Features with an area smaller than min_area in km^2 or
of hierarchical level higher than max_level will not be
plotted [Default is 0/4 (all features)]. See DATABASE
INFORMATION below for more details.
-B Sets map boundary tickmark intervals. See psbasemap
for details.
-C Set the shade (0 - 255), color (r/g/b), or pattern
(p|Psize/pattern) for lakes [Default is the fill
chosen for "wet" areas (-S)].
-D Selects the resolution of the data set to use ((f)ull,
(h)igh, (i)ntermediate, (l)ow, and (c)rude). The reso-
lution drops off by 80% between data sets. [Default is
l].
-E Sets the viewpoint's azimuth and elevation (for per-
spective view) [180/90]
-F Sets the color used for Frame and annotation. [Default
is 0/0/0 (black)]
-G Select painting of "dry" areas. Optionally, set the
shade (0 - 255), color (r/g/b), or pattern
(p|Psize/pattern) [Default is black].
-I Draw rivers. Specify the type of rivers and [option-
ally] append pen attributes [Default pen: width = 1,
color = 0/0/0, texture = solid]. Choose from the list
of river types below. Repeat option -I as often as
necessary.
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
a = All rivers and canals (1-10)
r = All permanent rivers (1-4)
i = All intermittent rivers (5-7)
c = All canals (8-10)
-K More PostScript code will be appended later [Default
terminates the plot system].
-L Draws a simple map scale centered on lon0/lat0. Use -
Lx to specify position in inch instead. Scale is cal-
culated at latitude slat, length is in km [miles if m
is appended; nautical miles if n is appended]. Use -Lf
to get a "fancy" scale [Default is plain].
-N Draw political boundaries. Specify the type of boun-
dary and [optionally] append pen attributes [Default
pen: width = 1, color = 0/0/0, texture = 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 Selects Overlay plot mode [Default initializes a new
plot system].
- P Selects Portrait plotting mode [GMT Default is
Landscape, see gmtdefaults to change this].
-S Select painting of "wet" areas. Optionally, set the
shade (0 - 255), color (r/g/b), or pattern
(p|Psize/pattern) [Default is white].
-U Draw Unix System time stamp on plot. User may specify
where the lower left corner of the stamp should fall on
the page relative to lower left corner of plot in inch
[Default is (-0.75,-0.75)]. Optionally, append a
label, or c (which will plot the command string.)
-V Selects verbose mode, which will send progress reports
to stderr [Default runs "silently"].
-W Draw coastlines. [Default is no coastlines]. Append
pen attributes [Defaults: width = 1, color = 0/0/0,
texture = solid].
-X -Y
Shift origin of plot by (x-shift,y-shift) inch
[Default is (1,1) for new plots, (0,0) for overlays].
-c Specifies the number of plot copies. [Default is 1]
EXAMPLES
To plot a green Africa with white outline on blue back-
ground, with permanent major rivers in thick blue pen, addi-
tional major rivers in thin blue pen, and national borders
as dashed lines on a Mercator map at scale 0.1 inch/degree,
try
pscoast - R-30/30/-40/40 - Jm0.1 - B5 - I1/4/0/0/255 -
I1/1/0/0/255 -N1/1ta -W3/255/255/255 -G0/255/0 -S0/0/255 -P
> africa.ps
To plot Iceland using the lava pattern (# 28), unit size 0.5
inch, on a Mercator map at scale 0.4 inch/degree, try
pscoast -R-30/-10/60/65 -Jm0.4 -B5 -Gp0.5/28 > iceland.ps
DATABASE INFORMATION
The coastline database is compiled from two sources: World
Vector Shorelines (WVS) and CIA World Data Bank II (WDBII).
In particular, 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. Much processing has
taken place to convert WVS and WDBII 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 deter-
mined 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, respec-
tively).
The political borders are for the most part 1970ies-style
and do not reflect the recent border rearrangments in
Europe. We intend to update these as high-resolution data
become avaiable to us.
Some users of pscoast will not be satisfied with what they
find for the Antarctic shoreline. In Antarctica, the boun-
dary between ice and ocean varies seasonally and interannu-
ally. There are some areas of permanent sea ice. In addi-
tion to these time-varying ice-ocean boundaries, there are
also 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 Monitor-
ing 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, Lens-
field Road, Cambridge CB2 1ER, United Kingdom.
SEE ALSO
gmtdefaults, gmt, grdlandmask, psbasemap
REFERENCES
Wessel, P., and W. H. F. Smith, 1995, The Generic Mapping
Tools (GMT) version 3.0 Technical Reference & Cookbook,
SOEST/NOAA.
Wessel, P., and W. H. F. Smith, 1995, New Version of the
Generic Mapping Tools Released, EOS Trans. AGU, 76, p. 329.
Wessel, P., and W. H. F. Smith, 1995, New Version of the
Generic Mapping Tools Released,
http://www.agu.org/eos_elec/95154e.html, Copyright 1995 by
the American Geophysical Union.
Wessel, P., and W. H. F. Smith, 1991, Free Software Helps
Map and Display Data, EOS Trans. AGU, 72, p. 441.