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Adaptive Composite Map Projections

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Title Adaptive Composite Map Projections
Names
Date Issued 2012-12 (iso8601)
Note This is the author's peer-reviewed final manuscript, as accepted by the publisher. The published article is copyrighted by IEEE-Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and can be found at: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=2945. ©2012 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.
Abstract All major web mapping services use the web Mercator projection. This is a poor choice for maps of the entire globe or
areas of the size of continents or larger countries because the Mercator projection shows medium and higher latitudes with extreme
areal distortion and provides an erroneous impression of distances and relative areas. The web Mercator projection is also not able
to show the entire globe, as polar latitudes cannot be mapped. When selecting an alternative projection for information visualization,
rivaling factors have to be taken into account, such as map scale, the geographic area shown, the map’s height-to-width ratio, and
the type of cartographic visualization. It is impossible for a single map projection to meet the requirements for all these factors. The
proposed composite map projection combines several projections that are recommended in cartographic literature and seamlessly
morphs map space as the user changes map scale or the geographic region displayed. The composite projection adapts the map’s
geometry to scale, to the map’s height-to-width ratio, and to the central latitude of the displayed area by replacing projections and
adjusting their parameters. The composite projection shows the entire globe including poles; it portrays continents or larger
countries with less distortion (optionally without areal distortion); and it can morph to the web Mercator projection for maps showing
small regions.
Genre Article
Topic Multi-scale map
Identifier Jenny, B. (2012). Adaptive composite map projections. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (Proceedings Scientific Visualization / Information Visualization 2012), 18-12, p. 2575–2582.

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