common vector datasets

This repo keeps geojson copies of common vector datasets for convenient, semi-permanent access.

Simplified MODIS grid: modis_sinusoidal-SIMPLE.json. GitHub has this nice feature that renders GeoJSON objects.

The raw files can be read directly into processing routines. For example, in Python with geopandas:

import geopandas as gpd

u = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jjmcnelis/common-layers-geojson/master/modis_sinusoidal-SIMPLE.json"
gpd.read_file(u)

Sources

Tiger/Line Shapefiles from US Census - www.census.gov

https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/tiger-line-file.html

Natural Earth cultural and physical boundaries

https://www.naturalearthdata.com/

MODIS Sinusoidal Grid

From a KMZ vector generated by my colleague at ORNL.

Script

You need gdal/ogr binary tools. You can install like this if you're on ubuntu/debian:

sudo apt-get install gdal-bin

Run the shell script gen-geojson.sh to download the latest copy of the datasets and generate GeoJSONs:

chmod +x gen-geojson.sh
./gen-geojson.sh

Modify the ogr2ogr commands in the script to include the -simplify <tolerance> option to reduce vertices (simplify) the output vectors. The JSONs labeled SIMPLE in the base directory of this repo have been simplified with tolerance==0.01 so that they're all under 1MB. The full resolution versions are in the maxres/ folder.