As Great Britain’s national mapping agency, they provide the most accurate and up-to-date geographic data.
This is where you can find extracts of maps from different places around the world. From here you can download:
License:Publish Domain
A small-scale map of North America was made using a set of basic map information provided by national atlas programs in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Now the framework raw data that was used to produce this map is available from nationalatlas.gov.
License:Public Domain
The TIGER/Line files were created from the Census Bureau's TIGER (Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing) database of selected geographic and cartographic information. TIGER was developed at the Census Bureau to support the mapping and related geographic activities required by the decennial and economic censuses and sample survey programs. TIGER/Line files are made available to the public and are typically used by people to provide the digital map base for their Geographic Information System or mapping software.
License:Publish Domain
GTOPO30 is a global digital elevation model (DEM) with a horizontal grid spacing of 30 arc seconds (approximately 1 kilometer). GTOPO30 was derived from several raster and vector sources of topographic information. For easier distribution, GTOPO30 has been divided into tiles which can be selected from the map shown above. Detailed information on the characteristics of GTOPO30 including the data distribution format, the data sources, production methods, accuracy, and hints for users, is found in the GTOPO30 README file.
GTOPO30, completed in late 1996, was developed over a three year period through a collaborative effort led by staff at the U.S. Geological Survey's EROS Data Center (EDC). The following organizations participated by contributing funding or source data: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the United Nations Environment Programme/Global Resource Information Database (UNEP/GRID), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Instituto Nacional de Estadistica Geografica e Informatica (INEGI) of Mexico, the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research of New Zealand, and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR).
License:Publish Domain
Federal agencies and their partners collect and manage large amounts of geospatial data - but these data are often not easily found when needed or accessible in useful forms. The Geospatial Platform provides ready access to federally maintained geospatial data, services and applications. The content of all datasets and services demarcated with the Data.gov globe have been verified by the Agency to be consistent with Federal privacy, national security, and information quality policies. As an additional service to our users, we also provide access to data from our partners across State, Tribal, Regional and local governments as well as non-governmental organizations.
The purpose of NASAs Visible Earth is to provide a consistently updated, central point of access to the superset of NASAs Earth science-related images, animations, and data visualizations. Amoung these are for example the Blue Marble (highres true-color image of the earth) or city lights
The historical map collection has over 30,000 maps and images online. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century North American and South American maps and other cartographic materials. Historic maps of the World, Europe, Asia, and Africa are also represented.
Drainage networks and associated drainage basins form complex functional entities not only for hydrological processes but also for environmental processes at large. This has been recognised in recent European legislation such as the Water Framework Directive (WFD). In order to study the underlying processes and cause-effect relationships at regional to European scales, comprehensive digital data of river networks, drainage basins (catchments) and their characteristics are required. JRC's Catchment Characterisation and Modelling (CCM) activity responded to this need through the development of a pan-European database of river networks and catchments. Version 1.0 of CCM has been published in 2003. In July 2007 an geographically extended and substantially improved CCM Version 2.0 has been released. The current Version 2.1 of July 2008 is an update of version 2.0. It includes the correction of noted errors as well additional functionality. A detailed report on the development of CCM 2.0 as well Release Notes for CCM 2.1 are provided below.
The National Transportation Atlas Database is a set of nationwide geographic databases of transportation facilities, transportation networks, and associated infrastructure. These datasets include spatial information for transportation modal networks and intermodal terminals, as well as the related attribute information for these features. Metadata documentation, as prescribed by the Federal Geographic Data Committee, is also provided for each database. The data support research, analysis, and decision-making across all modes of transportation. They are most useful at the national level, but have major applications at regional, state, and local scales throughout the transportation community.
This data consists of 33 files of global topography in the same format as the SRTM30 products distributed by the USGS EROS data center. The grid resolution is 30 second which is roughly one kilometer. In addition the global data are also available in a single large file ready for GMT.
Land data are based on the 1-km averages of topography derived from the USGS SRTM30 grided DEM data product created with data from the NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. GTOPO30 data are used for high latitudes where SRTM data are not available.
Ocean data are based on the Smith and Sandwell global 1-minute grid between latitudes +/- 81 degrees. Higher resolution grids have been added from the LDEO Ridge Multibeam Synthesis Project, the JAMSTEC Data Site for Research Cruises, and the NGDC Coastal Relief Model. Arctic bathymetry is from the International Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (IBCAO) [Jakobsson et al., 2003].
Query and order satellite images, aerial photographs, and cartographic products through the U.S. Geological Survey
Frida was a great success, the geographical data has been used by many projects e.g. Thuban, GRASS and others to demonstrate the capabilities of Free Software for handling geographic data and teach GIS.