WorldMap

DESCRIPTION

INPUTS

WIDGETS

• CIA Map Directory

  Type:

  Text

  Should be set to the directory in which the CIA and plate boundary maps may be found. The CIA maps are included with this module or are available by anonymous ftp from sepftp.stanford.edu in /pub/World_Map. The compressed version found there will untar into a map directory with subdirectories named africa.Map, asia.Map, europe.Map, namer.Map, and samer.Map. The original database (not the compressed version used here) is available from the U.S. Government and is in the public domain. The USGS_plates.txt file included with this module should be added to the map directory if you need plate boundary maps. The maps consume about 13 megabytes of disk space.
• Precision

  Type:

  Text

  Should be set to the size, in seconds, of the largest feature which the decimation routine will eliminate. Usually this should be no higher that 3600 seconds (1 degree). A setting of 1 second will include all features since raw map coordinates are in integer numbers of seconds. Most features on the map appear to be on the order of thirty seconds. The decimation algorithm operates by combining as many line segments smaller than precision as possible such that their total vector length is still less than Precision into a single line segment. This will tend to eliminate features smaller than Precision and small islands may be reduced to a segment of zero length.

  Remember that the map files are greatly compressed and when read into memory the map will be much larger. It is best to start at lower resolution with fewer features and build up than to attempt to read in the entire map at full resolution. One must use less resolution when looking at large areas and higher resolution when zooming in. This will also improve the drawing time for the map.

• International

  Type:

  Option Menu

  Selects international political boundaries which are not something else (coastlines, rivers, etc.). This option menu, like most of the option menus (see exceptions below), operates on the principle that if you want, for example, Minor Rivers, you also want Major Rivers. Therefore selecting a feature on an option menu implies selecting all features above it on the menu as well. Of course some options, such as Plates, are simply all or none.
• National

  Type:

  Option Menu

  Selects national political boundaries, specifically U.S. states and Canadian provinces. No other national political boundaries are in the map data base.
• Coasts, Islands, and Lakes

  Type:

  Option Menu

  Selects coasts, islands, and lakes.
• Rivers

  Type:

  Option Menu

  Selects rivers.
• Reefs, etc.

  Type:

  Option Menu

  Selects reefs and/or salt pans. Combined because of the limited number of input ports allowed by explorer.
• Ice

  Type:

  Option Menu

  Selects glaciers and ice shelves.
• Canals

  Type:

  Option Menu

  Selects canals.
• Plates

  Type:

  Option Menu

  Selects tectonic plate boundaries.
• Parallels

  Type:

  Option Menu

  Selects latitude grid lines.
• Meridians

  Type:

  Option Menu

  Selects longitude grid lines.
• Min Longitude

  Type:

  Text

  Sets minimum longitude, may be any number less than maximum longitude.
• Max Longitude

  Type:

  Text

  Sets maximum longitude, may be any number greater than minimum longitude. The map can extend for more than 360 degress.
• Min Latitude

  Type:

  Text

  Sets minimum latitude, must be greater than -90 and less than maximum latitude.
• Max Latitude

  Type:

  Text

  Sets maximum latitude, must be less than 90 and greater than minimum latitude.

OUTPUTS

• Output

  Type:

  Pyramid

  Constraints:

  1-layer. 1..-baseLat. n-D compression. none-compression type.

  Pyramid which contains the map. The output pyramid follows the finite element convention and is suitable for feeding into PyrToGeom. The coordinates are curvilinear and of the form (longitude, latitude, 0.0). There is a single data variable which is set to a number from 0 to 99 depending on the particular feature that is represented. When a colormap is used with PyrToGeom, this data allows each feature to have different color.

  Map Feature Color Numbers

  1 Demarcated or delimited international boundary

  2 Indefinite or in dispute international boundary

  3 Other line of separation of sovereignty on land

  21 Demarcated or delimited national boundary

  22 Indefinite or in dispute national boundary

  23 Other national boundary

  41 Coasts, islands and lakes on most maps

  42 Additional major islands and lakes

  43 Intermediate islands and lakes

  44 Minor islands and lakes

  46 Intermittent major lakes

  47 Intermittent minor lakes

  48 Reefs

  49 Salt pans-major

  50 Salt pans-minor

  53 Ice shelves-major

  54 Ice shelves-minor

  55 Glaciers

  61 Permanent major rivers

  62 Additional major rivers

  63 Additional rivers

  64 Minor rivers

  65 Double lined rivers

  66 Intermittent rivers-major

  67 Intermittent rivers-additional

  68 Intermittent rivers-minor

  70 Major canals

  71 Canals of lesser importance

  72 Canals-irrigation type

  81 Plate boundaries

  99 Grid lines / BendBox output

PROBLEMS

• Large maps may fragment arena memory.

SEEALSO

• Projector, PyrToGeom, WorldCrop.