Mapping Toolbox

World Vector Data

Coastlines

The coast MAT-file contains a set of vector shorelines intended for global displays in which political boundaries are not required. The data is stored in vectors of latitude and longitude, consisting of nearly 10,000 points. While this a considerable quantity of data, it is of very low resolution by cartographic standards.

• load coast
  whos
  
  

  Name	Size	Bytes	Class
  lat	9589x1	76712	double array
  long	9589x1	76712	double array

The dataset is in patch format, meaning it has polygon segments that return to their starting points and can therefore be usefully displayed using patch commands. The polygon segments are separated by NaNs into about 240 faces. The data can also be displayed as lines or points.

• axesm giso; framem; gridm
  patchesm(lat,long,'FaceColor',0.75*[1 1 1])
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

The resolution for this dataset makes it ideal for global-scale displays but inappropriate for significantly smaller regions, as can be seen when the region around Cape Cod in the northeastern United States is displayed. This is, incidentally, the area covered by the cape MAT-file provided with MATLAB.

• figure
  axesm('MapProjection','mercator',...
      'MapLatLimit',[41 44],'MapLonLimit',[-72 -69])
  framem
  gridm('MLineLocation',1,'PLineLocation',1);
  mlabel('MLabelLocation',1)
  plabel('PLabelLocation',1)
  patchesm(lat,long,'FaceColor',.75*[1 1 1])
  
  
  
  

Atlas Data

Low-Resolution World Atlas Data