OBLIQUE MERCATOR

PROJECTION
1. Badbad, Myrnalyn
2. Villahermosa, Kryzel
3. Magallon, Gelenn Mae
4. Blanco, Ericka
5. Cojena, Christina
Figure
Definition
 An oblique cylindrical projection that is conformal but
not equal area.

 Oblique Mercator for the sphere is equivalent to a

regular Mercator projection that has been altered by
wrapping a cylinder around the sphere so that it
touches the surface along the great circle path
chosen for the central line instead of along the Earth's
Equator.
History
 Developed in 1900 - 1950 by Rosenmund, Laborde, Hotine and others.
 in 1976, the space-oblique Mercator projection (SOM) was developed by
John P. Snyder, Alden Partridge Colvocoresses and John L. Junkins
 Snyder had an interest in maps, originating back to his childhood and he
regularly attended cartography conferences

 When the United States Geological Survey (USGS) needed to develop a

system for reducing the amount of distortion caused when satellite pictures
of the ellipsoidal Earth were printed on a flat page. Snyder worked on the
problem armed with his newly purchased pocket calculator and devised
the mathematical formulas needed to solve the problem. He submitted
these to the USGS at no charge, starting off a new career at USGS. His
formulas were used to produce maps from Landsat 4 images launched in
the summer of 1978.
Features
 cylindrical, conformal map projection
 the cylinder is wrapped around the ellipsoid so that it
touches the surface along the great circle path chosen
for the central line, instead of along the earth's equator.
 Scale becomes infinite 90 degrees from the central line
and is true along a chosen central line, along two
straight lines parallel to the central line, or along a great
circle at an oblique angle.
 a point and an azimuth define the central line where the
cylinder touches the ellipsoid.
Uses

 used for geographic regions that are centered along

lines that are neither meridians nor parallels, but that
may be taken as great circle routes passing through the
region, such as the Alaskan panhandle.
 provides continual conformal mapping of the
swath sensed by a satellite.