Began in 2009. Natural Earth is a public domain map data set available at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110m scales, featuring vector and raster data. Primary authors: Tom Patterson and Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso. Vector data is in ESRI shapefile format and raster data is in TIFF format with a TFW world file. All data uses the Geographic projection, WGS84 datum. Title from home page (viewed Dec. 8, 2009). System requirements: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software that reads ESRI shapefile format. Supported by: North American Cartographic Information Society.