Natural Earth
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Natural Earth
Natural Earth is a public domain map dataset available at 1:10 million (1 cm = 100 km), 1:50 million, and 1:110 million map scales. Natural Earth's data set contains integrated vector and raster mapping data. The original authors of the map dataset are Tom Patterson and Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso, but Natural Earth has expanded to be a collaboration of many volunteers and is supported by the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS).Natural Earth Contributors
It is free for public use in any type of project. The dataset includes the fictitious 1-meter-square at for error-checking purposes.


Public domain data and software

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Natural Earth Hypso Water
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are part of nature, human activity is often understood as a separate category from other natural phenomena. The word ''nature'' is borrowed from the Old French ''nature'' and is derived from the Latin word ''natura'', or "essential qualities, innate disposition", and in ancient times, literally meant "birth". In ancient philosophy, ''natura'' is mostly used as the Latin translation of the Greek word ''physis'' (φύσις), which originally related to the intrinsic characteristics of plants, animals, and other features of the world to develop of their own accord. The concept of nature as a whole, the physical universe, is one of several expansions of the original notion; it began with certain core applications of the word φύσις by pre-Socr ...
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Public Domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, and composition. Legal definitions Creative works require a cre ... to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, anyone can legally use or reference those works without permission. As examples, the works of William Shakespeare, Ludwig van Beethoven, Leonardo da Vinci and Georges Méliès are in the public domain either by virtue of their having been created before copyright existed, or by their copyright term having expired. Some works are not covered by a country's copyright laws, and are therefore in the public domain; for example, in the United States, items excluded from copyright include the for ...
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Data Set
A data set (or dataset) is a collection of data. In the case of tabular data, a data set corresponds to one or more database tables, where every column of a table represents a particular variable, and each row corresponds to a given record of the data set in question. The data set lists values for each of the variables, such as for example height and weight of an object, for each member of the data set. Data sets can also consist of a collection of documents or files. In the open data discipline, data set is the unit to measure the information released in a public open data repository. The European data.europa.eu portal aggregates more than a million data sets. Some other issues ( real-time data sources, non-relational data sets, etc.) increases the difficulty to reach a consensus about it. Properties Several characteristics define a data set's structure and properties. These include the number and types of the attributes or variables, and various statistical measures applic ...
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Map Scale
The scale of a map is the ratio of a distance on the map to the corresponding distance on the ground. This simple concept is complicated by the curvature of the Earth's surface, which forces scale to vary across a map. Because of this variation, the concept of scale becomes meaningful in two distinct ways. The first way is the ratio of the size of the generating globe to the size of the Earth. The generating globe is a conceptual model to which the Earth is shrunk and from which the map is projected. The ratio of the Earth's size to the generating globe's size is called the nominal scale (= principal scale = representative fraction). Many maps state the nominal scale and may even display a bar scale (sometimes merely called a 'scale') to represent it. The second distinct concept of scale applies to the variation in scale across a map. It is the ratio of the mapped point's scale to the nominal scale. In this case 'scale' means the scale factor (= point scale = particular scale). ...
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North American Cartographic Information Society
The North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) is a US-based cartographic society founded in 1980. It was founded by specialists in cartography, which included government mapmakers, map librarians, cartography professors and cartography lab directors. It now represents a broad mixture of academic, government and commercial interests, with a sizeable proportion of working cartographers. Many NACIS members come from related vocations (e.g. art, design, information visualization, GIS, historical research, and software development.) NACIS offers both volunteer opportunities and travel grants for students and members of the community. Objectives To improve communication, coordination and cooperation among the producers, disseminators, curators, and users of cartographic information. To support and coordinate activities with other professional organizations and institutions involved with cartographic information. To improve the use of cartographic materials through educatio ...
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Null Island
Null Island is the point on Earth's surface at zero degrees latitude and zero degrees longitude (), i.e., where the prime meridian and the Equator intersect. Null Island is located in international waters in the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 600 km off the coast of West Africa, in the Gulf of Guinea. The exact point, using the WGS84 datum, is marked by the Soul buoy (named after the musical genre), a permanently-moored weather buoy. The term "Null Island" jokingly refers to a fictional place at that location, and to a common cartographic placeholder name to which coordinates erroneously set to 0,0 are assigned in placename databases in order to more easily find and fix them. The nearest land () is to the north – a small Ghanaian islet offshore from Achowa Point between Akwidaa and Dixcove. The depth of the seabed beneath the Soul buoy is around . Although Null Island started as a joke within the geospatial community, its existence has both technological and social implications that ...
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Raster Graphics
upright=1, The Smiley, smiley face in the top left corner is a raster image. When enlarged, individual pixels appear as squares. Enlarging further, each pixel can be analyzed, with their colors constructed through combination of the values for red, green and blue. In computer graphics and digital photography, a raster graphic represents a two-dimensional picture as a rectangular matrix or grid of square pixels, viewable via a computer display, paper, or other display medium. A raster is technically characterized by the width and height of the image in pixels and by the number of bits per pixel. Raster images are stored in image files with varying dissemination, production, generation, and acquisition formats. The printing and prepress industries know raster graphics as contones (from ''continuous tones''). In contrast, line art is usually implemented as vector graphics in digital systems. Many raster manipulations map directly onto the mathematical formalisms of linear al ...
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Vector Graphics
Vector graphics is a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector display and printing ''hardware'', vector ''data models'' and file formats, as well as the ''software'' based on these data models (especially graphic design software, computer-aided design, and geographic information systems). Vector graphics is an alternative to raster or bitmap graphics, with each having advantages and disadvantages in specific situations. While vector hardware has largely disappeared in favor of raster-based monitors and printers, vector data and software continues to be widely used, especially when a high degree of geometric precision is required, and when complex information can be decomposed into simple geometric primitives. Thus, it is the preferred model for domains such as engineering, architecture, surveying, 3D render ...
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Natural Earth Projection
The Natural Earth projection is a Map projection#Pseudocylindrical, pseudocylindrical map projection designed by Tom Patterson (cartographer), Tom Patterson and introduced in 2008. It is neither Map_projection#Conformal, conformal nor Map_projection#Equal-area, equal-area, but a compromise between the two. In its original presentation, the projection's origin is described as "The impetus for creating the Natural Earth projection was dissatisfaction with existing world map projections for displaying physical data." Further criteria follow, ending with "The ideal projection needed to be both functional and rather familiar in appearance." The Natural Earth projection was originally designed in Flex Projector, a specialized software application that offers a graphical approach for the creation of new projections. Subsequently, Bojan Šavrič developed a polynomial expression of the projection. The projection may also be referred to as the Natural Earth I projection, due to subseq ...
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Cartography
Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively. The fundamental objectives of traditional cartography are to: * Set the map's agenda and select traits of the object to be mapped. This is the concern of map editing. Traits may be physical, such as roads or land masses, or may be abstract, such as toponyms or political boundaries. * Represent the terrain of the mapped object on flat media. This is the concern of map projections. * Eliminate characteristics of the mapped object that are not relevant to the map's purpose. This is the concern of generalization. * Reduce the complexity of the characteristics that will be mapped. This is also the concern of generalization. * Orchestrate the elements of the ...
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