Chapter 2 Lecture

E-Lecture: Chapter 2

Portraying Earth

McKnight's Physical Geography

12th ed and 4th California ed

Adapted by A. Marquis

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Outline: Portraying Earth
• Maps and Globes
– What is a Globe vs. a Map
– Basic Map Components and Properties
• Map Scale
– Scale Types
– Large-Scale and Small-Scale Maps
• Map Projections
– Equivalent
– Conformal
– Compromise

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Outline: Portraying Earth
• Families of Map Projections
– Cylindrical Projections
– Planar Projections
– Conic Projections
– Pseudocylindrical Projections
• Conveying Information on Maps
– Isolines
– Portraying the Three-Dimensional Landscapes
• GNSS—Global Navigation Satellite System
– GPS
– Roll of satellites
• Geographic Information Systems—GIS
– What is it, how does it work and who uses it
• Remote Sensing
© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Maps and Globes
• Globe is truest depiction of Earth
– maintains spherical shape
– undistorted spatial relationships
– Doesn’t show much detail of surface
• Maps: flat representation of Earth
– portray spatial relationships in two-
dimensions
– selected features and data make
maps for special purposes
– Geographers trained to identify
effective tools for specific purposes

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Maps and Globes
• All maps are distorted
from portraying a curved
surface on a flat surface
• Maps show four basic
properties of an area
– size
– shape
– distance
– direction

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Conveying Information on Maps
• Basic map components
– Title
– date
– legend
– scale
– direction
– location
– data source
– projection type

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Map Scale
• Map scale: relationship
between distance on the
map and actual distance
on the ground
– allows for navigation,
calculating area, and
comparing sizes
– distortions mean scale can
never be exactly correct on
entire map
• Three map scale types:
– graphic map scale
– fractional map scale
– verbal map scale

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Map Scale
• Small-scale map:
small representative
fraction
– used to show a
relatively large area
– limits detail

• Large-scale map:
relatively large
representative fraction
– show a small portion of
Earth’s surface
– used to show detail
© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Map Projections
• Map projection: Earth’s curved surface
transformed for display on flat surface
• All projections have distortions in one of four basic
properties:
– shape
– relative area
– distance
– direction
• Cartographers can
control or reduce one
or more basic property
distortions.
• Choose projection based on purpose of map.
© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Map Projections
• Equivalent map projection (equal area): size
ratio of areas are maintained
– distorts shapes, notably on small-scale maps
• Conformal map projection: proper angular
relationships are maintained
Note the size and
– distorts size of an area shape of Greenland
– smaller and Africa in both
areas are maps!
less distorted

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Map Projections
• Compromise map projection: neither equivalent
nor conformal
– balances reasonably accurate shapes with reasonably
accurate areas

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Map Projections

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Families of Map Projections
• Cylindrical projection:
“wrap” globe in a
cylinder tangent at
equator
– size distortion greatest
away from circle of
tangency or standard
parallel
• Mercator projection:
conformal cylindrical
– used for navigation • Loxodrome: line on
– area mostly distorted at sphere crossing
the poles meridians at same angle
© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Families of Map Projections
• Planar projections:
project globe onto flat
surface at point of
tangency
– equivalent projection
– typically show only one
hemisphere or other
specific regions
– no distortion
immediately around
point of tangency, but
distortion increases

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Families of Map Projections
• Conic projections: project globe onto a cone
with its base as standard parallel
– distortion smallest near circle of tangency
– well adapted to mapping relatively small areas and
midlatitudes of east-west orientation

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Families of Map Projections
• Pseudocylindrical projection: mix of conformal
and equivalent
– central parallel and meridian at right angles
– central intersection a point of no distortion
– wraps around standard parallel, usually equator, and
curves in toward the poles

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Families of Map Projections
• Interrupted projections: minimize distortion of
landmasses by “interrupting” oceanic regions
– discontinuous map maintaining shapes and sizes of
continents even at high latitudes
– Goode’s projection

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Conveying Information on Maps
• Isoline: line joining
points of equal value,
separated at regular
intervals
– many types of isolines
– always closed lines
– Lines cannot cross
each other
– Values on one side of
a line are greater than
values on the other
side of the line.

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Conveying Information on Maps
• Types of isolines:
– contour lines join points
of equal elevation on
topographic maps
– isotherms join points of
equal temperature
– isobars join points of
equal atmospheric
pressure
– isohyet join points of
equal precipitation
– isogonic line joins points
of equal magnetic
declination

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Conveying Information on Maps
• Contour line construction

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Conveying Information on Maps
• Three-dimensional
landscape
– beyond the elevation
contours of flat
topographic maps
– digital elevation
models (DEMs):
shaded-relief images
resulting from database
of precise elevations

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 GNSS—Global Navigation Satellite System
• GNSS: system of satellite
technologies providing
precise location data
– includes Global Positioning
System (GPS)
– Each satellite continuously
transmits its position.
– Receivers on the surface
connect with four or more
satellites to triangulate
receiver’s position.
• GPS: uses latitude and
– Used in phones, cars and
longitude to display
many digital devices today.
location.

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• Computer systems that
analyze, display spatial data
• Overlay analysis: involves
two or more layers of data
superimposed or integrated
– Begin with a map of a region,
add desired data layer by layer
• enables wide-ranging
applications and decision
making
– Used by cities, franchise
businesses, governments, etc.

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Remote Sensing
• Remote sensing:
any measurement by
a device not in
contact with Earth’s
surface
– Initially airplanes, but
now satellites capture
information from high-
altitude vantage
points.
– data gathered then
produce images

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Remote Sensing
• Orthophoto maps:
multicolored,
distortion-free
photographic
maps
– prepared from
aerial photos
and/or digital
images
– show landscapes
in greater detail
while retaining
common scale

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Remote Sensing
• Visible light and infrared sensing
– uses certain wavelengths from
electromagnetic spectrum
– “false-color” images created from
electronic sensors or photographic film
– surface cover variation revealed like
difference between live or dead
vegetation
• Thermal infrared: sensing
useful for temperature variation

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Remote Sensing
• Radar: radio detection
and ranging, signals
and senses certain
wavelengths
• Sonar: sound
navigation and ranging
permits underwater
imaging
• Lidar: uses reflected
laser light to measure
distances and three-
dimensional
information
© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.