Medium resolution vector polylines of the Antarctic coastline - VERSION 7.12
GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/02186
Page Links
Jump To:
- Citation
- Access Data
- Constraints
- Basic Information
- Additional Information
- Locality
- Instrumentation
- Storage
Related Links
Summary
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. This dataset has been generalised from the high resolution vector polyline. Medium resolution versions of ADD data are suitable for scales smaller than 1:1,000,000, although certain regions will appear more detailed than others due to variable data availability and coastline characteristics.
Changes in v7.12 include updates to the ice shelves around Alexander Island, such as Wilkins, George VI and Bach Ice Shelves; the coastline around Thwaites and Pine Island Glaciers, Bryan Coast and Abbot Ice Shelf, and changes to the coast at Vaughan Inlet.
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
Citation
Gerrish, L., Ireland, L., Fretwell, P., Cooper, P., & Skachkova, A. (2026). Medium resolution vector polylines of the Antarctic coastline - VERSION 7.12 (Version 7.12) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/37ad06ff-888d-452c-be85-018e59600103
Access Data
GET DATA
RELATED DATA SET METADATA
- https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/02102
- https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/02185
- https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/02187
- https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/02188
- https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/02189
- https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/02190
- https://data.bas.ac.uk/items/e74543c0-4c4e-4b41-aa33-5bb2f67df389/
Constraints
| Access Constraints: | None |
|---|---|
| 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. (2026). Medium resolution vector polylines of the Antarctic coastline (Version 7.12) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/37ad06ff-888d-452c-be85-018e59600103 If using for a graphic or if short on space, please cite as 'data from the SCAR Antarctic Digital Database, 2026' |
Basic Information
| Creation Date: | 2026-04-23 |
|---|---|
| Dataset Progress: | Complete |
| Dataset Language: | English |
| ISO Topic Categories: |
|
| Parameters: |
|
| 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 |
Additional Information
| Quality: | See lineage information | |
|---|---|---|
| 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 the 1990s to 2026 - individual lines contain exact source dates in the sourcedate field with the corresponding sourceprec field. This medium resolution version has been generalised from the high resolution version. All areas <0.1km² not intersecting anything else were deleted, and the simplify tool was used in ArcGIS with the retain critical points algorithm and a smoothing tolerance of 50m. | |
Locality
| Temporal Coverage: | |
|---|---|
| Start Date | 1993-01-01 |
| End Date | 2026-04-10 |
| 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 |
Storage
| Distribution: | |
|---|---|
| Distribution Media | Online Internet (HTTP) |
| Distribution Size | 10.4 MB |
| Distribution Format | SHP |
| Fees | N/A |
| Data Storage: | This dataset constains 2 files: - GeoPackage ~7.5 MB - Shapefile ~2.9 MB |