This service contains generalized depth curves in the Norwegian Sea, as well as detailed shadow reliefs along the coast of Northern Norway. The data is not detailed. The depth curves come from very different sources and have widely varying quality and accuracy. The overview data must only be used as background information. The detailed shadow reliefs are of good quality because they are based on modern surveys.

Generalised depth curves for Norwegian coastal and sea areas.

The service provides an overview over chartered/surveyed areas of the Norwegian sea areas. Bathymetry has been collected over a long period, by various actors and with different equipment. In the attribute table of the dataset, there are details such as the year of measurement, mapping method, data owner/which actor collected the data, equipment, echo sounder type, specification, and resolution. This service is based on OGC API Features. OGC API is a group of new standards being developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) to make it easier to access geographic data on the web. Not all GIS software has established support for all the new standards, which means that for example one must use a vector tiles connection to this service when using QGIS.

The dataset provides an overview over chartered/surveyed areas of the Norwegian sea areas. Bathymetry has been collected over a long period, by various actors and with different equipment. In the attribute table of the dataset, there are details such as the year of measurement, mapping method, data owner/which actor collected the data, equipment, echo sounder type, specification, and resolution. This service is based on OGC API Features. OGC API is a group of new standards being developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) to make it easier to access geographic data on the web. Not all GIS software has established support for the new standards, which may result in the functionality being somewhat slow in certain clients, such as QGIS.

Regular grids with 50m x 50m resolution which show the terrain variation on the seafloor in Norwegian sea/ocean areas. The grid model was generated by interpolating the original depth data from the primary database of the Norwegian Mapping Authority Hydrographic Service. Therefore the data has varying quality with regard to the reliability of both the positions and the depths.

The WMS service shows the depth conditions in Norwegian sea areas as shadow relief with resolutions of 5 m, 25 m, 50 m. The data on the map is scale-dependent and more details are shown when one zooms into the map. If you zoom into the map, this will automatically take you to 50-meter resolution, then on to 25 meters and – if the data is detailed enough – down to a 5-meter resolution between depth points. There are 5 meter and 25 meter grids, but only outside the territory boundary (12 nautical miles) as data within the territorial boundary is classified by the Norwegian Armed Forces. The very few areas, which have been released by the Norwegian Armed Forces, are exempted from this. The shadow relief is derived mainly from regular grids (terrain models), which are based solely on modern multibeam surveys. The dataset has best coverage in the areas in Northern Norway where the Norwegian Mapping Authority Hydrographic Service and partners have carried out hydrographic surveys over the past few years. The dataset also has some coverage in Central Norway and will be extended as new hydrographic surveys are carried out and terrain models are produced for the seabed.