The GEBCO_2025 Grid - a continuous terrain model for oceans and land at 15 arc-second intervals
Abstract
The GEBCO_2025 Grid is a global continuous terrain model for ocean and land with a spatial resolution of 15 arc seconds. In regions largely outside of the Arctic and Southern Ocean areas, the grid uses as a base Version 2.7 of the SRTM15_plus data set (Tozer et al., 2019). This data set is a fusion of land topography with measured and estimated seafloor topography. Included on top of this base grid are gridded bathymetric data sets developed by the four Regional Centers of The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project. The GEBCO_2025 Grid represents all data within the 2025 compilation. The compilation of the GEBCO_2025 Grid was carried out at the Seabed 2030 Global Center, hosted at the National Oceanography Centre, UK, with the aim of producing a seamless global terrain model. Outside of Polar regions, the Regional Centers provide their data sets as sparse grids i.e. only grid cells that contain data are populated. These data sets were included on to the base using a 'remove-restore' blending procedure. This is a two-stage process of computing the difference between the new data and the base grid and then gridding the difference and adding the difference back to the existing base grid. The aim is to achieve a smooth transition between the new and base data sets with the minimum of perturbation of the existing base data set. The data sets supplied in the form of complete grids (primarily areas north of 60N and south of 50S) were included using feather blending techniques from GlobalMapper software. The GEBCO_2025 Grid has been developed through the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project. This is a collaborative project between the Nippon Foundation of Japan and the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO). It aims to bring together all available bathymetric data to produce the definitive map of the world ocean floor by 2030 and make it available to all. Funded by the Nippon Foundation, the four Seabed 2030 Regional Centers include the Southern Ocean - hosted at the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Germany; Pacific Ocean - hosted at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), New Zealand; Atlantic and Indian Oceans - hosted at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), Columbia University, USA; Arctic and North Pacific Oceans - jointly hosted at Stockholm University, Sweden and the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire, USA.
Date Created
04 August 2025
Publication Date
8-4-2025
Subject
elevation, oceans, GEBCO, seafloor, bathymetry, Global Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans
Source
https://doi.org/10.5285/37c52e96-24ea-67ce-e063-7086abc05f29
Publisher Place
Liverpool, UK
Rights
Terms of use The GEBCO Grid is placed in the public domain and may be used free of charge. Use of the GEBCO Grid indicates that the user accepts the conditions of use and disclaimer information given below. Users are free to: Copy, publish, distribute and transmit The GEBCO Grid Adapt The GEBCO Grid Commercially exploit The GEBCO Grid, by, for example, combining it with other information, or by including it in their own product or application Users must: Acknowledge the source of The GEBCO Grid. A suitable form of attribution is given in the documentation that accompanies The GEBCO Grid. Not use The GEBCO Grid in a way that suggests any official status or that GEBCO, or the IHO or IOC, endorses any particular application of The GEBCO Grid. Not mislead others or misrepresent The GEBCO Grid or its source. Disclaimer The GEBCO Grid should NOT be used for navigation or for any other purpose involving safety at sea. The GEBCO Grid is made available 'as is'. While every effort has been made to ensure reliability within the limits of present knowledge, the accuracy and completeness of The GEBCO Grid cannot be guaranteed. No responsibility can be accepted by GEBCO, IHO, IOC, or those involved in its creation or publication for any consequential loss, injury or damage arising from its use or for determining the fitness of The GEBCO Grid for any particular use. The GEBCO Grid is based on bathymetric data from many different sources of varying quality and coverage. As The GEBCO Grid is an information product created by interpolation of measured data, the resolution of The GEBCO Grid may be significantly different to that of the resolution of the underlying measured data.
Publisher
NERC EDS British Oceanographic Data Centre NOC
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.5285/37c52e96-24ea-67ce-e063-7086abc05f29
Grant/Award Number and Agency
Nippon Foundation - Seabed 2030
Document Type
Data Set
Recommended Citation
GEBCO Bathymetric Compilation Group 2025 (2025). The GEBCO_2025 Grid - a continuous terrain model for oceans and land at 15 arc-second intervals. NERC EDS British Oceanographic Data Centre NOC. https://doi.org/10.5285/37c52e96-24ea-67ce-e063-7086abc05f29