Low-distortion symmetrical polyconic map projections of the world

ABSTRACT

Polyconic map projections are rarely used for world maps because traditional polyconic mappings do not have a favourable distortion pattern. However, this paper demonstrates that the generalized versions of these projections can be adjusted well for global maps. The formulae are optimized numerically to ensure that the projections will have as low distortion as possible. Furthermore, optimal polyconic mappings with further restrictions (e. g. rectangular graticule, equal-area) are also developed.

KEYWORDS:

• Distortions of map projections
• numerical optimization
• polyconic projections

Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to Györffy János for his help during the mathematical derivation and for his helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).