GEBCO Grid display software

The GEBCO Grid display software is available to download, free of charge under license, for use with the GEBCO gridded bathymetric data sets. It provides the means for displaying and accessing the data from

• the GEBCO One Minute Grid — a global one arc-minute grid
• the GEBCO_08 Grid — a global 30 arc-second grid

Viewing GEBCO_08 using the GEBCO Grid display software. ©

It has been developed by the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) to run on a PC running Microsoft Windows 95 or later and is controlled by a series of drop-down menus and toolbar buttons. Please note that the software is designed for use with the complete, global data files available for download from BODC.

Features of the GEBCO Grid display software include

• Display GEBCO's gridded bathymetric data sets on your PC screen, colour coded for depth/elevation.
• Export data in an ASCII format or netCDF.
• Choice of five map projections for display — Equidistant Cylindrical, Mercator, Miller Cylindrical, Lambert Cylindrical Equal-Area and Polar Stereographic.
• Import your own file(s) of data points to display in the map area.
• Select your geographic area of interest either by chart number, by latitude and longitude limits, or by an on-screen zoom box.

Exploring the ocean floor with Google Earth

If you could peer beneath the ocean waves and glimpse the seafloor far below, you would see deep basins, vast mountains chains and long trenches. This is known as bathymetry.

Understanding bathymetry helps us understand the rest of the planet as this landscape helps steer ocean currents that in turn affect climate change. It also influences hazards facing coastal communities, such as approaching tsunamis.

The GEBCO_08 Grid and Google Earth ©

The General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) community has been working for many years to provide the most authoritative, publicly-available bathymetric data sets for the world’s oceans. The recently released GEBCO 30 arc-second bathymetric grid (GEBCO_08) has been used as a basis for the 3D model of the oceans within Google Earth 5.0, to allow us to view the underwater landscape.

The GEBCO_08 bathymetric grid has been developed using a combination of ship track soundings and satellite-derived gravity data.

The GEBCO_08 Grid and the GEBCO One Minute Grid are both available to download from the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC).

GEOTRACES International Data Assembly Centre

The British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) announces the launch of the GEOTRACES International Data Assembly Centre (GIDAC) web site. This will provide access to

* GEOTRACES data
* information on past and future GEOTRACES cruises
* general information regarding data
* information about the GEOTRACES programme

Understanding biogeochemical cycling of important trace elements and isotopes in the oceans ©

GEOTRACES is an international programme that aims to improve our understanding of biogeochemical cycles and large-scale distribution of trace elements and their isotopes in the marine environment. The global field programme will run for at least a decade and will involve cruises, run by a variety of nations, in all ocean basins.

Although still in its infancy, the GEOTRACES programme's aim is to compile a global dataset for all key GEOTRACES parameters. This dataset will eventually be available to the wider science community in accordance with the GEOTRACES data policy.

Edward Mawji has been appointed the BODC coordinator. He will be working closely with the GEOTRACES scientists to establish common metadata and format protocols and will also be responsible for the quality control and secure archiving of data that will be collected during cruises.