R: Draw a Map

mapPlot {oce} | R Documentation

## Draw a Map

### Description

Plot coordinates as a map, using one of the subset of projections provided by the sf package. The projection information specified with the `mapPlot()` call is stored in a global variable that can be retrieved by related functions, making it easy to add points, lines, text, images or contours to an existing map. See the “Details” for a list of available projections.

### Usage

    mapPlot(
      longitude,
      latitude,
      longitudelim,
      latitudelim,
      grid = TRUE,
      geographical = 0,
      bg,
      fill,
      border = NULL,
      col = NULL,
      clip = TRUE,
      type = "polygon",
      axes = TRUE,
      axisStyle = 1,
      cex,
      cex.axis = 1,
      mgp = c(0, 0.5, 0),
      drawBox = TRUE,
      showHemi = TRUE,
      polarCircle = 0,
      lonlabels = TRUE,
      latlabels = TRUE,
      projection = "+proj=moll",
      tissot = FALSE,
      trim = TRUE,
      debug = getOption("oceDebug"),
      ...
    )

### Arguments

`longitude` | either a numeric vector of longitudes of points to be plotted, or something (an `oce` object, a list, or a data frame) from which both longitude and latitude may be inferred (in which case the `latitude` argument is ignored). If `longitude` is missing, both it and `latitude` are taken from the built-in coastlineWorld dataset.
`latitude` | numeric vector of latitudes of points to be plotted (ignored if the first argument contains both latitude and longitude).
`longitudelim` | optional numeric vector of length two, indicating the longitude limits of the plot. This value is used in the selection of longitude lines that are shown (and possibly labelled on the axes). In some cases, e.g. for polar views, this can lead to odd results, with some expected longitude lines being left out of the plot. Altering `longitudelim` can often help in such cases, e.g. `longitudelim=c(-180, 180)` will force the drawing of lines all around the globe.
`latitudelim` | optional vector of length two, indicating the latitude limits of the plot. This, together with `longitudelim` (and, importantly, the geometry of the plot device) is used in the selection of map scale.
`grid` | either a number (or pair of numbers) indicating the spacing of longitude and latitude lines, in degrees, or a logical value (or pair of values) indicating whether to draw an auto-scaled grid, or whether to skip the grid drawing. In the case of numerical values, `NA` can be used to turn off the grid in longitude or latitude. Grids are set up based on examination of the scale used in middle 10 percent of the plot area, and for most projections this works quite well. If not, one may set `grid=FALSE` and add a grid later with `mapGrid()`.
`geographical` | flag indicating the style of axes. With `geographical=0`, the axes are conventional, with decimal degrees as the unit, and negative signs indicating the southern and western hemispheres. With `geographical=1`, the signs are dropped, with axis values being in decreasing order within the southern and western hemispheres. With `geographical=2`, the signs are dropped and the axes are labelled with degrees, minutes and seconds, as appropriate, and hemispheres are indicated with letters. With `geographical=3`, things are the same as for `geographical=2`, but the hemisphere indication is omitted. Finally, with `geographical=4`, unsigned numbers are used, followed by letters `N` in the northern hemisphere, `S` in the southern, `E` in the eastern, and `W` in the western.
`bg` | color of the background (ignored).
`fill` | is a deprecated argument; see oce-deprecated.
`border` | color of coastlines and international borders (ignored unless `type="polygon"`.
`col` | either the color for filling polygons (if `type="polygon"`) or the color of the points and line segments (if `type="p"`, `type="l"`, or `type="o"`). If `col=NULL` then a default will be set: no coastline filling for the `type="polygon"` case, or black coastlines, for `type="p"`, `type="l"`, or `type="o"`.
`clip` | logical value indicating whether to trim any coastline elements that lie wholly outside the plot region. This can prevent e.g. a problem of filling the whole plot area of an Arctic stereopolar view, because the projected trace for Antarctica lies outside all other regions so the whole of the world ends up being "land". Setting `clip=FALSE` disables this action, which may be of benefit in rare instances in the line connecting two points on a coastline may cross the plot domain, even if those points are outside that domain.
`type` | indication of type; may be `"polygon"`, for a filled polygon, `"p"` for points, `"l"` for line segments, or `"o"` for points overlain with line segments.
`axes` | a logical value indicating whether to draw longitude and latitude values in the lower and left margin, respectively. This may not work well for some projections or scales. See also `axisStyle`, `lonlabels` and `latlabels`, which offer more granular control of labelling.
`axisStyle` | an integer specifying the style of labels for the numbers on axes. The choices are: 1 for signed numbers without additional labels; 2 (the default) for unsigned numbers followed by letters indicating the hemisphere; 3 for signed numbers followed by a degree sign; 4 for unsigned numbers followed by a degree sign; and 5 for signed numbers followed by a degree sign and letters indicating the hemisphere.
`cex` | character expansion factor for plot symbols, used if `type='p'` or any other value that yields symbols.
`cex.axis` | axis-label expansion factor (see `par()`).
`mgp` | three-element numerical vector describing axis-label placement, passed to `mapAxis()`.
`drawBox` | logical value indicating whether to draw a box around the plot. This is helpful for many projections at sub-global scale.
`showHemi` | logical value indicating whether to show the hemisphere in axis tick labels.
`polarCircle` | a number indicating the number of degrees of latitude extending from the poles, within which zones are not drawn.
`lonlabels` | An optional logical value or numeric vector that controls the labelling along the horizontal axis. There are four possibilities: (1) If `lonlabels` is `TRUE` (the default), then reasonable values are inferred and axes are drawn with ticks and labels alongside those ticks; (2) if `lonlabels` is `FALSE`, then ticks are drawn, but no labels; (3) if `lonlabels` is `NULL`, then no axis ticks or labels are drawn; and (4) if `lonlabels` is a vector of finite numerical values, then tick marks are placed at those longitudes, and labels are put alongside them. Note that R tries to avoid overwriting labels on axes, so the instructions See also `latlabels`, and note that setting `axes=FALSE` ensures that no longitude or latitude axes will be drawn regardless of the values of `lonlabels` and `latlabels`.
`latlabels` | As `lonlabels`, but for latitude, on the left plot axis.
`projection` | optional indication of projection, in one of two forms. First, it may be a character string in the "CRS" format that is used by the sf package (and in much of modern computer-based cartography). For example, `projection="+proj=merc"` specifies a Mercator projection. The second format is the output from `sp::CRS()` in the sp package, which is an object with a slot named `projarg` that gets used as a projection string. See “Details”.
`tissot` | logical value indicating whether to use `mapTissot()` to plot Tissot indicatrices, i.e. ellipses at grid intersection points, which indicate map distortion.
`trim` | logical value indicating whether to trim islands or lakes containing only points that are off-scale of the current plot box. This solves the problem of Antarctica overfilling the entire domain, for an Arctic-centred stereographic projection. It is not a perfect solution, though, because the line segment joining two off-scale points might intersect the plotting box.
`debug` | a flag that turns on debugging. Set to 1 to get a moderate amount of debugging information, or to 2 to get more.
`...` | optional arguments passed to some plotting functions. This can be useful in many ways, e.g. Example 5 shows how to use `xlim` etc to reproduce a scale exactly between two plots.

### Details

The calculations for map projections are done with the sf package. Importantly, though, not all the sf projections are available in `oce`, for reasons relating to limitations of sf, for example relating to inverse-projection calculations. The `oce` choices are tabulated below, e.g. `projection="+proj=aea"` selects the Albers equal area projection. (See also the warning, below, about a problem with sf version 0.9-8.)

Further details of the vast array of map projections provided by PROJ are given in reference 4. This system has been in rapid development since about 2018, and reference 5 provides a helpful overview of the changes and the reasons why they were necessary. Practical examples of map projections in oce are provided in reference 6, along with some notes on problems. A fascinating treatment of the history of map projections is provided in reference 7. To get an idea of how projections are being created nowadays, see reference 8, about the `eqearth` projection that was added to oce in August 2020.

### A warning about 'sf' version 0.9-8

This version of sf, released in March of 2021, has errors with respect to some projections. This was noticed for the `"ortho"` projection, but the problem may occur for other projections as well. Therefore, the user ought to use sf versions prior to 0.9-8, or subsequent to it. Most likely, this message will become moot in the summer of 2021, when a new version of sf will become available on CRAN.

### Available Projections

The following table lists projections available in oce, and was generated by reformatting a subset of the output of the unix command `proj -lP`. Most of the arguments have default values, and many projections also have optional arguments. Although e.g. `proj -l=aea` provides a little more information about particular projections, users ought to consult reference 4 for fuller details and illustrations.

Projection | Code | Arguments
Albers equal area | `aea` | `lat_1`, `lat_2`
Azimuthal equidistant | `aeqd` | `lat_0`, `guam`
Aitoff | `aitoff` | -
Mod. stererographics of Alaska | `alsk` | -
Bipolar conic of western hemisphere | `bipc` | -
Bonne Werner | `bonne` | `lat_1`
Cassini | `cass` | -
Central cylindrical | `cc` | -
Equal area cylindrical | `cea` | `lat_ts`
Collignon | `collg` | -
Craster parabolic Putnins P4 | `crast` | -
Eckert I | `eck1` | -
Eckert II | `eck2` | -
Eckert III | `eck3` | -
Eckert IV | `eck4` | -
Eckert V | `eck5` | -
Eckert VI | `eck6` | -
Equidistant cylindrical plate (Caree) | `eqc` | `lat_ts`, `lat_0`
Equidistant conic | `eqdc` | `lat_1`, `lat_2`
Equal earth | `eqearth` | -
Euler | `euler` | `lat_1`, `lat_2`
Extended transverse Mercator | `etmerc` | -
Fahey | `fahey` | -
Foucault | `fouc` | -
Foucault sinusoidal | `fouc_s` | -
Gall stereographic | `gall` | -
Geostationary satellite view | `geos` | `h`
General sinusoidal series | `gn_sinu` | `m`, `n`
Gnomonic | `gnom` | -
Goode homolosine | `goode` | -
Hatano asymmetrical equal area | `hatano` | -
Interrupted Goode homolosine | `igh` | -
Kavraisky V | `kav5` | -
Kavraisky VII | `kav7` | -
Lambert azimuthal equal area | `laea` | -
Longitude and latitude | `longlat` | -
Longitude and latitude | `latlong` | -
Lambert conformal conic | `lcc` | `lat_1`, `lat_2` or `lat_0`, `k_0`
Lambert equal area conic | `leac` | `lat_1`, `south`
Loximuthal | `loxim` | -
Space oblique for Landsat | `lsat` | `lsat`, `path`
McBryde-Thomas flat-polar sine, no. 1 | `mbt_s` | -
McBryde-Thomas flat-polar sine, no. 2 | `mbt_fps` | -
McBryde-Thomas flat-polar parabolic | `mbtfpp` | -
McBryde-Thomas flat-polar quartic | `mbtfpq` | -
McBryde-Thomas flat-polar sinusoidal | `mbtfps` | -
Mercator | `merc` | `lat_ts`
Miller oblated stereographic | `mil_os` | -
Miller cylindrical | `mill` | -
Mollweide | `moll` | -
Murdoch I | `murd1` | `lat_1`, `lat_2`
Murdoch II | `murd2` | `lat_1`, `lat_2`
murdoch III | `murd3` | `lat_1`, `lat_2`
Natural earth | `natearth` | -
Nell | `nell` | -
Nell-Hammer | `nell_h` | -
Near-sided perspective | `nsper` | `h`
New Zealand map grid | `nzmg` | -
General oblique transformation | `ob_tran` | `o_proj`, `o_lat_p`, `o_lon_p`,
|  | `o_alpha`, `o_lon_c`, `o_lat_c`,
|  | `o_lon_1`, `o_lat_1`,
|  | `o_lon_2`, `o_lat_2`
Oblique cylindrical equal area | `ocea` | `lat_1`, `lat_2`, `lon_1`, `lon_2`
Oblated equal area | `oea` | `n`, `m`, `theta`
Oblique Mercator | `omerc` | `alpha`, `gamma`, `no_off`,
|  | `lonc`, `lon_1`, `lat_1`,
|  | `lon_2`, `lat_2`
Orthographic | `ortho` | -
Polyconic American | `poly` | -
Putnins P1 | `putp1` | -
Putnins P2 | `putp2` | -
Putnins P3 | `putp3` | -
Putnins P3' | `putp3p` | -
Putnins P4' | `putp4p` | -
Putnins P5 | `putp5` | -
Putnins P5' | `putp5p` | -
Putnins P6 | `putp6` | -
Putnins P6' | `putp6p` | -
Quartic authalic | `qua_aut` | -
Quadrilateralized spherical cube | `qsc` | -
Robinson | `robin` | -
Roussilhe stereographic | `rouss` | -
Sinusoidal aka Sanson-Flamsteed | `sinu` | -
Swiss. oblique Mercator | `somerc` | -
Stereographic | `stere` | `lat_ts`
Oblique stereographic alternative | `sterea` | -
Transverse cylindrical equal area | `tcea` | -
Tissot | `tissot` | `lat_1`, `lat_2`
Transverse Mercator | `tmerc` | `approx`
Two point equidistant | `tpeqd` | `lat_1`, `lon_1`, `lat_2`, `lon_2`
Tilted perspective | `tpers` | `tilt`, `azi`, `h`
Universal polar stereographic | `ups` | `south`
Urmaev flat-polar sinusoidal | `urmfps` | `n`
Universal transverse Mercator | `utm` | `zone`, `south`, `approx`
van der Grinten I | `vandg` | -
Vitkovsky I | `vitk1` | `lat_1`, `lat_2`
Wagner I Kavraisky VI | `wag1` | -
Wagner II | `wag2` | -
Wagner III | `wag3` | `lat_ts`
Wagner IV | `wag4` | -
Wagner V | `wag5` | -
Wagner VI | `wag6` | -
Werenskiold I | `weren` | -
Winkel I | `wink1` | `lat_ts`
Winkel Tripel | `wintri` | `lat_ts`

### Choosing a projection

The best choice of projection depends on the application. Users may find `projection="+proj=moll"` useful for world-wide plots, `ortho` for hemispheres viewed from the equator, `stere` for polar views, `lcc` for wide meridional ranges in mid latitudes, `merc` in limited-area cases where angle preservation is important, or either `aea` or `eqearth` (on local and global scales, respectively) where area preservation is important. The choice becomes more important, the larger the size of the region represented. When it comes to publication, it can be sensible to use the same projection as used in previous reports.

### Problems

Map projection is a complicated matter that is addressed here in a limited and pragmatic way. For example, `mapPlot` tries to draw axes along a box containing the map, instead of trying to find spots along the “edge” of the map at which to put longitude and latitude labels. This design choice greatly simplifies the coding effort, freeing up time to work on issues regarded as more pressing. Chief among those issues are (a) the occurrence of horizontal lines in maps that have prime meridians (b) inaccurate filling of land regions that (again) occur with shifted meridians and (c) inaccurate filling of Antarctica in some projections. Generally, issues are tackled first for commonly used projections, such as those used in the examples.

### Changes

- 2020-12-24: complete switch from rgdal to sf, removing the testing scheme created on 2020-08-03.

- 2020-08-03: added support for the `eqearth` projection (like `robin` but an equal-area method).

- 2020-08-03: dropped support for the `healpix`, `pconic` and `rhealpix` projections, which caused errors with the sf package. (This is not a practical loss, since these interrupted projections were handled badly by `mapPlot()` in any case.)

- 2020-08-03: switch from rgdal to sf for calculations related to map projection, owing to some changes in the former package that broke oce code. (To catch problems, oce was set up to use both packages temporarily, issuing warnings if the results differed by more than 1 metre in easting or northing values.)

- 2019-03-20: the test code provided the “Examples” section is disabled on i386/windows machines, on which the requisite rgdal package continues to fail on common projections.

- 2017-11-19: `imw_p` removed, because it has problems doing inverse calculations. This is a also problem in the standalone PROJ.4 application version 4.9.3, downloaded and built on OSX. See https://github.com/dankelley/oce/issues/1319 for details.

- 2017-11-17: `lsat` removed, because it does not work in rgdal or in the latest standalone PROJ.4 application. This is a also problem in the standalone PROJ.4 application version 4.9.3, downloaded and built on OSX. See https://github.com/dankelley/oce/issues/1337 for details.

- 2017-09-30: `lcca` removed, because its inverse was wildly inaccurate in a Pacific Antarctic-Alaska application (see https://github.com/dankelley/oce/issues/1303).

### Author(s)

Dan Kelley and Clark Richards

### References

1. Snyder, John P., 1987. Map Projections: A Working Manual. USGS Professional Paper: 1395

2. Natural Resources Canada https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/earth-sciences/geography/topographic-information/maps/9805

3. "List of Map Projections." In Wikipedia, January 26, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_map_projections.

4. PROJ contributors (2020). "PROJ Coordinate Transformation Software Library." Open Source Geospatial Foundation, n.d. https://proj.org.

5. Bivand, Roger (2020) Why have CRS, projections and transformations changed? Vignette for rgdal 1.5-13 https://rgdal.r-forge.r-project.org/articles/CRS_projections_transformations.html

6. A gallery of map plots is provided at https://dankelley.github.io/r/2020/08/02/oce-proj.html

7. Snyder, John Parr. Flattening the Earth: Two Thousand Years of Map Projections. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1993. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo3632853.html

8. Šavrič, Bojan, Tom Patterson, and Bernhard Jenny. "The Equal Earth Map Projection." International Journal of Geographical Information Science 33, no. 3 (March 4, 2019): 454-65. doi: 10.1080/13658816.2018.1504949

### See Also

Points may be added to a map with `mapPoints()`, lines with `mapLines()`, text with `mapText()`, polygons with `mapPolygon()`, images with `mapImage()`, and scale bars with `mapScalebar()`. Points on a map may be determined with mouse clicks using `mapLocator()`. Great circle paths can be calculated with `geodGc()`. See reference 8 for a demonstration of the available map projections (with graphs).

Other functions related to maps: `formatPosition()`, `lonlat2map()`, `lonlat2utm()`, `map2lonlat()`, `mapArrows()`, `mapAxis()`, `mapContour()`, `mapCoordinateSystem()`, `mapDirectionField()`, `mapGrid()`, `mapImage()`, `mapLines()`, `mapLocator()`, `mapLongitudeLatitudeXY()`, `mapPoints()`, `mapPolygon()`, `mapScalebar()`, `mapText()`, `mapTissot()`, `oceCRS()`, `shiftLongitude()`, `usrLonLat()`, `utm2lonlat()`

### Examples

    library(oce)
    data(coastlineWorld)

    # Example 1.
    # Mollweide (referenc 1 page 54) is an equal-area projection that works well
    # for whole-globe views.
    mapPlot(coastlineWorld, projection="+proj=moll", col='gray')
    mtext("Mollweide", adj=1)

    # Example 2.
    # Note that filling is not employed (`col` is not
    # given) when the prime meridian is shifted, because
    # this causes a problem with Antarctica
    cl180 <- coastlineCut(coastlineWorld, lon_0=-180)
    mapPlot(cl180, projection="+proj=moll +lon_0=-180")
    mtext("Mollweide with coastlineCut", adj=1)

    # Example 3.
    # Orthographic projections resemble a globe, making them attractive for
    # non-technical use, but they are neither conformal nor equal-area, so they
    # are somewhat limited for serious use on large scales.  See Section 20 of
    # reference 1. Note that filling is not employed because it causes a problem with
    # Antarctica.
    if (utils::packageVersion("sf") != "0.9.8") {
        # sf version 0.9-8 has a problem with this projection
        par(mar=c(3, 3, 1, 1))
        mapPlot(coastlineWorld, projection="+proj=ortho +lon_0=-180")
        mtext("Orthographic", adj=1)
    }

    # Example 4.
    # The Lambert conformal conic projection is an equal-area projection
    # recommended by reference 1, page 95, for regions of large east-west extent
    # away from the equator, here illustrated for the USA and Canada.
    par(mar=c(3, 3, 1, 1))
    mapPlot(coastlineCut(coastlineWorld, -100),
            longitudelim=c(-130,-55), latitudelim=c(35, 60),
            projection="+proj=lcc +lat_0=30 +lat_1=60 +lon_0=-100", col='gray')
    mtext("Lambert conformal", adj=1)

    # Example 5.
    # The stereographic projection (reference 1, page 120) is conformal, used
    # below for an Arctic view with a Canadian focus.  Note the trick of going
    # past the pole: the second latitudelim value is 180 minus the first, and the
    # second longitudelim is 180 plus the first; this uses image points "over"
    # the pole.
    par(mar=c(3, 3, 1, 1))
    mapPlot(coastlineCut(coastlineWorld, -135),
            longitudelim=c(-130, 50), latitudelim=c(70, 110),
            projection="+proj=stere +lat_0=90 +lon_0=-135", col='gray')
    mtext("Stereographic", adj=1)

    # Example 6.
    # Spinning globe: create PNG files that can be assembled into a movie

    ## Not run:
    if (utils::packageVersion("sf") != "0.9.8") {
        # sf version 0.9-8 has a problem with this projection
        png("globe-%03d.png")
        lons <- seq(360, 0, -15)
        par(mar=rep(0, 4))
        for (i in seq_along(lons)) {
            p <- paste("+proj=ortho +lat_0=30 +lon_0=", lons[i], sep="")
            if (i == 1) {
                mapPlot(coastlineCut(coastlineWorld, lons[i]), projection=p, col="gray")
                xlim <- par("usr")[1:2]
                ylim <- par("usr")[3:4]
            } else {
                mapPlot(coastlineCut(coastlineWorld, lons[i]), projection=p, col="gray",
                        xlim=xlim, ylim=ylim, xaxs="i", yaxs="i")
            }
        }
        dev.off()
    }

    ## End(Not run)

[Package oce version 1.7-2 Index]