NCL Home> Application examples> Maps and map projections || Data files for examples

Coastlines

These examples show how to use the multi-resolution coastline database, RANGS (Regionally Accessible Nested Global Shorelines), developed by Rainer Feistel from Wessel and Smith's GSHHS (Global Self-consistent Hierarchical High-resolution Shoreline) database. You need to download and install it first; click here for more information.
coast_1.ncl: Demonstrates the three levels of coastline data in NCL.

To change the coastline to the medium level, set mpDataBaseVersion = "MediumRes".

The third example is of the multi-resolution coastline database. Once you have the RANGS database installed, set mpDataBaseVersion = "HighRes" to create maps using this database. Note: you should not use this database to plot maximal area plots, because 1) you will get horizontal lines through your plot, and 2) it takes a long time.

coast_2.ncl: Demonstrates a lambert conformal map with high-resolution coastlines.