NOAA Marine Geophysical Data and a GEBCO Grid for the Topographical Analysis of Japanese Archipelago by Means of GRASS GIS and GDAL Library

Polina Lemenkova (1)

1 OUC - Ocean University of China

This article analyzes topographical and geological settings in the Japan Ar‐ chipelago for comparative raster data processing using GRASS GIS. Data in‐ clude bathymetric and geological grids in NetCDF format: GEBCO, EMAG2, GlobSed, marine free‐air gravity anomaly and EGM96. Data were imported to GRASS by gdalwarp utility of GDAL and projected via PROJ library. Method‐ ology includes data processing (projecting and import), mapping and spatial analysis. Visualization was done by shell scripting using a sequence of GRASS modules: ‘d.shade’ for relief mapping, ‘r.slope.aspect’; for modelling based on DEM, ‘r.contour’ for plotting isolines, ‘r.mapcalc’ for classification, ‘r.category’ for associating labels, and auxiliary modules (d.vect, d.rast, d.grid, d.legend). The results of the geophysical visualization show that marine free‐air gravi‐ tational anomalies vary in the Sea of Japan (–30 to above 40 mGal) reflecting density inhomogeneities of the tectonic structure, and correlating with the geo‐ logical structure of the seafloor. Dominating values of geoid model are 30–45 m reflecting West Pacific rise, determined by deep density inhomogeneities as‐ sociated with the mantle convention. Sediment thickness varies across the sea reflecting its geological development with density of 2 km in its deepest part and thinner in central part (Yamato Rise). The aspect map and reclassified map express gradient of the steepest descent.

Keywords: GRASS GIS; GEBCO; NOAA; Japan; topography; mapping

Domains: Computer Science [cs]; Information Retrieval [cs.IR]; Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]; Oceanography; Graphics [cs.GR]; Data Structures and Algorithms [cs.DS]; Artificial Intelligence [cs.AI]; Databases [cs.DB]; Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition [cs.CV]; Computer Aided Engineering; Information Theory [cs.IT]; Programming Languages [cs.PL]; Environmental Sciences; Modeling and Simulation; Mathematical Software [cs.MS]; Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Ocean, Atmosphere; Continental interfaces, environment; Earth Sciences; Applied geology; Geomorphology; Tectonics

Polina Lemenkova. NOAA Marine Geophysical Data and a GEBCO Grid for the Topographical Analysis of Japanese Archipelago by Means of GRASS GIS and GDAL Library. Geomatics and Environmental Engineering, 2020, 14 (4), pp.25-45. ⟨10.7494/geom.2020.14.4.25⟩. ⟨hal-03011892⟩