Generic Mapping Tools

{{Short description|Open source collection of mapping tools for manipulating geographic and Cartesian data sets}}

{{Infobox software

| name = Generic Mapping Tools

| logo = Generic Mapping Tools Logo.png

| author = Paul Wessel and Walter H. F. Smith

| developer = Wessel, Smith and volunteers

| released = {{Start date|1988}}

| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|reference|P348}}

| latest release date = {{start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|P348|P577}}}}

| programming language = C, C++

| operating system = Unix-like, Mac OS and Windows

| genre = Map generator

| license = GNU Lesser General Public License

}}

Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) are an open-source collection of computer software tools for processing and displaying xy and xyz datasets, including rasterization, filtering and other image processing operations, and various kinds of map projections. The software stores 2-D grids as COARDS-compliant netCDF files and comes with a comprehensive collection of free GIS data, such as coast lines, rivers, political borders and coordinates of other geographic objects. Users convert further data (like satellite imagery and digital elevation models) from other sources and import them. GMT stores the resulting maps and diagrams in PostScript (PS) or Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) format.{{cite web |last1=Smith |first1=Walter |title=New version of the generic mapping tools released |url=https://www.academia.edu/13075596 |website=EOS: Transactions of the American Geophysical Union |publisher=American Geophysical Union |access-date=20 December 2022 |date=1995}}

Users operate the system from the command line: this enables scripting and the automation of routine tasks. More or less comprehensive graphic user interfaces are available from third parties, as well as web applications, bringing the system's functionality online.

Paul Wessel and Walter H. F. Smith created GMT in the 1980s at Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, officially releasing it on October 7, 1991 under the GNU General Public License. The letters GMT originally stood for Gravity, Magnetism and Topography, the three basic types of geophysical data.{{cite web |url=http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pwessel/podcasts/GMT_20th_anniversary_talk_720p.m4v |title=20th anniversary lecture |first=Paul |last=Wessel |authorlink=Paul Wessel (geophysicist) |date=October 7, 2011 |work=gmt.soest.hawaii.edu |publisher=School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) |location=Honolulu, HI, US |format=MP4 video |accessdate=January 26, 2012 }} Besides its strong support for the visualization of geographic data sets, the software includes tools for processing and manipulating multi-dimensional datasets. GMT is most widely used by Earth and Ocean scientists.{{cite journal |title=The Generic Mapping Tools Version 6 |journal=Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems |date=2019 |volume=20 |pages=5556–5564 |doi=10.1029/2019GC008515 |last1=Wessel |first1=P. |last2=Luis |first2=J. F. |last3=Uieda |first3=L. |last4=Scharroo |first4=R. |last5=Wobbe |first5=F. |last6=Smith |first6=W. H. F. |last7=Tian |first7=D. |issue=11 |bibcode=2019GGG....20.5556W |s2cid=202908934 |doi-access=free |hdl=10400.1/13451 |hdl-access=free }}

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