Distinguishing between land and ocean on a coastline map

Share icon

I am using the GSHHS coastlines to plot the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. However, it is quite difficult to distinguish land from ocean unless you know what you're looking at. Is there a way to plot a similar map (that is still straightforward to plot shiptrack data on) but where it is possible to colour in the continents?
This does not seem like it should be so difficult, but several days of searching and trying have not found me the answer!
I know this is possible in matplotlib (python), but I would really like to be able to do this in Igor, which is where all my data is!
Assuming that your data consists of XY pairs of waves defining the coastlines, you could use ImageBoundaryToMask. Alternatively you could draw your coastlines, convert into a bitmap image and then use ImageSeedFill to draw the oceans.

A.G.
WaveMetrics, Inc.

January 30, 2015 at 07:48 am - Permalink