Abstract:
Coastline for Antarctica created from various mapping and remote sensing sources, consisting of the following coast types: 'ice coastline', 'rock coastline', 'grounding line', 'ice shelf and front', 'ice rumple', and 'rock against ice shelf', provided as a surface attribute. Covering all land and ice shelves south of 60degS. Suitable for topographic mapping and analysis. High resolution versions of ADD data are suitable for scales larger than 1:1,000,000. The largest suitable scale is changeable and dependent on the region.
Changes in v7.11 include updates to the coastline of Adelaide Island and surrounding islands, the grounding line of Alexander Island and the surrounding region, and the ice shelf front of the Brunt Ice Shelf. In addition, sourcedate and revdate attributes were updated to a consistent YYYY-MM-DD format. To indicate limited date precision for earlier records, sourceprec and revprec attributes were introduced.
Data compiled, managed and distributed by the Mapping and Geographic Information Centre and the UK Polar Data Centre, British Antarctic Survey on behalf of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.
Keywords:
Antarctic Digital Database, Antarctica, Coastline, Land cover, Land use, Topographic mapping
Gerrish, L., Ireland, L., Fretwell, P., Cooper, P., & Skachkova, A. (2025). High resolution vector polylines of the Antarctic coastline - VERSION 7.11 (Version 7.11) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/cc0b73c0-3b53-40fb-ae84-b5dce4ac163a
| Access Constraints: | None |
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| Use Constraints: | This information is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0). To view this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Please cite this item as: Gerrish, L., Ireland, L., Fretwell, P., Cooper, P., & Skachkova, A. (2025). High resolution vector polylines of the Antarctic coastline - VERSION 7.11 (Version 7.11) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/cc0b73c0-3b53-40fb-ae84-b5dce4ac163a If using for a graphic or if short on space, please cite as 'data from the SCAR Antarctic Digital Database, 2025' |
| Creation Date: | 2025-11-04 |
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| Dataset Progress: | Complete |
| Dataset Language: | English |
| ISO Topic Categories: |
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| Parameters: |
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| Personnel: | |
| Name | UK Polar Data Centre |
| Role(s) | Metadata Author |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Ms Laura Gerrish |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Ms Louise Ireland |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Dr Peter T Fretwell |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Paul Cooper |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Aliaksandra C G Skachkova |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Parent Dataset: | N/A |
| Lineage/Methodology: | Dataset compiled from a variety of Antarctic map and satellite image sources. The dataset was created using ArcGIS and QGIS GIS software programmes and has been checked for basic topography and geometry errors, but does not contain strict topology. Quality varies across the dataset, certain areas where high-resolution source data were available are suitable for large-scale maps, whereas other areas are only suitable for smaller scales. Each line has attributes detailing the source, which can give the user further indications of its suitability for specific uses. Attributes also give information, including surface (e.g. grounding line, ice coastline, ice shelf front) and revision date (revdate), accompanied by revprec - date precision, either day, month, or year. Compiled from sources ranging in time from 1990s-2025 - individual lines contain exact source dates in sourcedate field with the corresponding sourceprec field. | |
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| Temporal Coverage: | |
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| Start Date | 1993-01-01 |
| End Date | 2025-10-29 |
| Spatial Coverage: | |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | -90 |
| Northernmost | -60 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -180 |
| Easternmost | 180 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Location: | |
| Location | Antarctica |
| Detailed Location | N/A |
| Distribution: | |
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| Distribution Media | Online Internet (HTTP) |
| Distribution Size | 157 MB |
| Distribution Format | SHP |
| Fees | N/A |
| Data Storage: | This dataset constains 2 files: - GeoPackage ~115 MB - Shapefile ~47.3 MB |