An adaptable equal-area pseudoconic projection

[daan]

Hello all.

I published a paper on a highly adaptable equal-area projection that I developed. It’s pseudoconic, so the parallels in normal aspect are arcs of concentric circles. Depending on parameterization, the arcs can become straight lines, yielding pseudocylindric projections.

The projection is a generalization of both the Bonne and the Albers equal-area conic projection, and so, in a sense, it “blends” them, although the blending is not a linear function. You can vary four parameters to customize the projection, so it’s particularly handy for animated or Web-configurable situations.

Depending on parameterization, you can achieve any configuration of Bonne or Albers; sinusoidal; Collignon; a very close approximation of Kavraiskiy V; and Werner, which is itself a degeneration of Bonne.

This will go into Geocart’s next release.

Some samples:

Jellybean.jpg

Kinder.jpg

Kavraiskiy.jpg

Melted.jpg

UFO.jpg

Best,
— daan

[Atarimaster]

I have to admin that I didn’t purchase the paper, but the abstract sounds quite interesting.
I think it would be about time that online maps services offer equal area projections that can be adjusted to the region of interest. It always annoys me when, for example, our daily newspaper has a thematic map of Europe that screams out for equivalence but actually is a Stepmap-generated Web Mercator.

So, good luck to the new projection!