Map Projections: How Projections Work

May 26, 2005 | Link of the Day | By: Mark VandeWettering

North AmericaI like maps. I thought I’d archive a couple of useful links for generating your own maps:

  • First, a site to describe how to take latitude and longitude and project them into two dimensions. Contains lots and lots of formulas. Map Projections: How Projections Work
  • Of course, to use those formulas you need some raw data. The CIA World Databank II has such data, and is public domain to boot. The linked site has them in an easy to parse textual format for easy manipulation.

Addendum: the wikipedia has links to these sites, which is how I found them.

Addendum2: I also found this website to be useful. It countains outlines for the continents, which I used to generate this animated gif of the earth’s rotation.

Comments

Comment from Cristina Frentiu
Time 11/24/2007 at 10:42 am

Hello,
I found your animated gif of the earth’s rotation while searching for public domain pictures of the earth on google. It is indeed a beautiful thing that speaks for itself.

My site is yet under construction and i thought seeking your permission before i post or use any content of your web site. More specifically i am considering incorporating your animated gif of the earth’s rotation in my logo and also I’d like to post a link of your web site on my web site.

Please advise me on the Terms of Use for your site’s content, at your convenience.

Thank you for building such an interesting site.

Cristina Frentiu

Comment from Mark VandeWettering
Time 11/24/2007 at 2:46 pm

Feel free to use it as you see fit.