Goode homolosine

homolosine

Classifications

pseudocylindric
interrupted
composite
equal-area

Graticule

Meridians: In the interrupted form, there are six central meridians, each a straight line 0.22 as long as the equator but not crossing the equator. Other meridians are equally spaced sinusoidal curves between latitudes 40°44′N and S. And elliptical arcs elsewhere, all concave toward the central meridian. There is a slight bend in meridians at the 40°44′ latitudes.
Parallels: Straight parallel lines, perpendicular to the central meridians. Equally spaced between latitudes 40°44′N and S. Cradually closer together beyond these latitudes as a pole is approached.
Poles: Points.
Symmetry: None in the usual interrupted form. If uninterrupted, there is symmetry about the central meridian or the equator.

Scale

True along every latitude between 40°44′N and S. And along the central meridian within the same latitude range. At higher latitudes, scale varies but is the same for the latitude of opposite sign.

Distortion

Same as sinusoidal projection between latitudes 40°44′N and S. Same as Mollweide projection beyond this range. Goode Homolosine projection is almost always presented interrupted, as the inventor originally intended.

Usage

Numerous world maps, especially in Goode's Atlas (Rand McNally).

Similar projections

Identical with sinusoidal between latitudes 40°44′N and S. And identical with Mollweide beyond these latitudes, except that the Mollweide portions are closer to the equator than they are on the original projection.
Sinu-Mollweide, devised by Allen K. Philbrick in 1953, is a merging of the Mollweide, used from the north pole to latitude 40°44′S, with the sinusoidal, used only south of latitude 40°44′S It is equal-area.
In 1968, Gyorgy Erdi-Kraus used a special flat-pole sinusoidal projection between latitudes 60°N and S. And the Mollweide projection poleward. It is equal-area only within each of the two projections, which are at two different area scales.

Origin

Developed in 1923 by J. Paul Goode (1862-1932) of the University of Chicago as a merging of the Mollweide (or Homolographic) with the sinusoidal at the parallels of identical scale, latitudes 40°44′N and S.; hence, the name Homolosine. Frequently plotted with some northern regions repeated on different interrupted sections to reduce discontinuities of land.

Description adapted from J.P. Snyder and P.M. Voxland, An Album of Map Projections, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1453. United States Government Printing Office: 1989.