This collection is a legacy product that is no longer supported. It may not meet current government standards.

A joint venture involving the National Atlas programs in Canada (Natural Resources Canada), Mexico (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía), and the United States (U.S. Geological Survey), as well as the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, has led to the release (June 2004) of several new products: an updated paper map of North America, and its associated geospatial data sets and their metadata.  These data sets are available online from each of the partner countries for download.

The North American Atlas data are standardized geospatial data sets at 1:10,000,000 scale.  A variety of basic data layers (e.g. roads, railroads, populated places, political boundaries, hydrography, bathymetry, sea ice and glaciers) have been integrated so that their relative positions are correct.  This collection of data sets forms a base with which other North American thematic data may be integrated. Any data outside of Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America included in the North American Atlas data sets is strictly to complete the context of the data.

The North American Atlas - Glaciers data set shows areas of permanent ice found on the North America landmass including Greenland, and also shows areas of land found within glaciers.  No distinction is made between major glaciers, ice fields, and the Greenland ice cap.  The only permanent ice shown on land areas outside of North America and Greenland is on Iceland.

This is a revised version of the 2004 data set. 

• Canada
• Coasts
• Glaciers
• Ice
• Ice caps
• Ice fields
• Inland waters
• Mid-latitude
• North America
• Northern Hemisphere
• Oceans
• Seas
• Water
• Western Hemisphere

Please see, https://open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada 

The North American Atlas data are intended for geographic display and analysis at the national and continental level.  The data should be displayed and analyzed at scales appropriate for 1:10,000,000-scale data.  No responsibility is assumed by Natural Resources Canada, Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, National Atlas of the United States, or the Commission for Environmental Cooperation  in the use of these data.

Source: https://natural-resources.canada.ca/science-and-data/science-and-research/earth-sciences/geography/topographic-information/download-directory-documentation/17215

The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) is an international organization created by Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC).  The CEC was established to address regional environmental concerns, help prevent potential trade and environmental conflicts, and to promote the effective enforcement of environmental law.  The Agreement complements the environmental provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).  Further information on the CEC is available from http://www.cec.org/ or from

Commission for Environmental Cooperation

393, rue St-Jacques Ouest

Bureau 200

Montréal (Québec)

H2Y 1N9 Canada

Telephone: 1 514 350 4300

Facsimile: 1 514 350 4314

Electronic mail: info@cec.org

This data set is available in several formats, including Shapefile, kml, layer package, and MXD.  Included with each download are a readme file along with other files appropriate to the particular format, such as .avl and .lyr files.  The data set is also available as a GeoPDF.  

These data are distributed in both geographic coordinates (through National Atlas of Canada, INEGI, and National Atlas of the United States), and Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area projection (CEC).  The following parameters are used for the Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area projection:

Longitude_of_Projection_Center: -100.00

Latitude_of_Projection_Center: 45.00

False_Easting (metres): 0.0

False_Northing (metres): 0.0

Semi-major_Axis: 6370997.0

Denominator_of_Flattening_Ratio: 1.0

Ellipsoid_Name: Sphere

Units: metres

The North American Environmental Atlas maintains this Glaciers data and all other base data sets in a geodatabase in a Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area projection.