Accessing ADD data in ArcGIS Pro
Last updated
Last updated
The best available topographic data of Antarctica is published through the Antarctic Digital Database (ADD). We recommend this data for mapping and scientific analysis. The ADD is managed by British Antarctic Survey, on behalf of SCAR.
All ADD data is available to download as shapefiles and Geopackages via the catalogue. Accessing the data this way to use on your local computer is completely valid. However, it is possible to load the coastline and contour datasets straight in to ArcGIS Pro via the ArcGIS Living Atlas.
Accessing the data this way means you don't have to download the data yourself. As long as you have an internet connection, the data can be loaded in to a project, and queried as you would if you had a local copy of the data.
This guide will explain how to load ADD coastline data in to an ArcGIS Pro project.
The ADD layers in ArcGIS Living Atlas will always reflect the most recent ADD data. ADD data is updated on 6 monthly schedule, in May and November. If you are using the layers in a project, and revisit that project 6 months later, the datasets may have been updated in meantime.
In ArcGIS Pro, you will see a ribbon menu along the top of the user interface. Click on the Map tab and Add Data
This will open a new dialogue window. In the table of contents on the left, expand Portal and click on Living Atlas. In the search box in the top right corner, type 'Antarctic Digital Database'. This will list the ADD datasets that are currently in Living Atlas.
Choose an appropriate layer, for example 'Medium resolution vector polylines of the Antarctic coastline'.
The layers projection is EPGS:3031 WGS84 Antarctic Polar Stereographic. If your ArcGIS Pro map project is in a different projection, the layer will re-project on the fly when you load it in. To view the data properly, it is recommended to change the projection of the project to match the data (ie. EPGS:3031 WGS84 Antarctic Polar Stereographic). This can be done in the Map Properties.
As well as accessing the datasets from a current ArcGIS Pro project, you can also view the layers online, and open them from their item pages.
Visit the SCAR ADD gallery in ArcGIS Online, or search for the dataset via the Living Atlas homepage.
Click on your layer of choice to open it, and select Open in ArcGIS Desktop > Open in ArcGIS ProPro.
