G.Projector - Global Map Projector

Projecting the oblique spheroid known as Earth onto a 2 dimensional surface is one of the major issues addressed by Geographers and Cartographers. Robert B. Schmunk (rschmunk@giss.nasa.gov) at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies at 2880 Broadway New York, NY 10025 USA has created an excellent free resource called G.Projector.

G.Projector is a Java application which allows you to explore a large collection of global map projections. These may then be projected as an GIF, JPG or PNG equirectangular map image. Longitude-lattitude gridlines and continental outlines may be drawn, and the resulting map images may be saved to disk in GIF, PDF, PNG or PS form.

G.Projector requires that your computer have a Java 1.4 virtual machine, or better, installed. It is available to download at the NASA GISS site Click here.

Included at the site is a nice list of projections describing their characteristics. This is a great site for professionals as well as educators. The graphic representation creates a visual that will aid in our understanding of a some what complicated concept.