The Global Multi-Resolution Topography (GMRT) Synthesis Project is a multi-resolutional compilation of edited multibeam sonar data collected by scientists and institutions worldwide, that is reviewed, processed and gridded by the GMRT Team and merged into a single continuously updated compilation of global elevation data.
The mission of the GMRT Synthesis Project, operated at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, is to provide free and open access to multi-resolution bathymetry data throughout the global oceans to the widest possible user community through a scalable infrastructure for data synthesis, and tools for data access and visualization.
The synthesis began in 1992 as the Ridge Multibeam Synthesis (RMBS), and was expanded to include multibeam bathymetry data from the Southern Ocean. Today, it includes bathymetry from throughout the global and coastal oceans. To achieve its aim of providing access to bathymetric data, the GMRT Synthesis Project processes and integrates publicly available multibeam bathymetry data into a global synthesis, and operates a scalable infrastructure that can be used to offer the highest-resolution data for any particular location in the ocean.
GMRT and its commitment to obtaining high-resolution bathymetric data will inevitably play a central role in supporting Seabed 2030’s mission of mapping the entire ocean floor.