EARTH_SPHERE
3D Image of Earth

EARTH_SPHERE is a MATLAB program which displays a 3D image of the earth, including oceans, continents, and topography, by Clay Thompson and Will Campbell.

Usage:

earth_sphere

[ x, y, z ] = earth_sphere ( n )

• n determines the size of the output arrays; the default is n=50.
• x, y, z are (n+1) by (n+1) arrays such that the command surface(x, y, z) will display the earth surface and continents.

Licensing:

    Copyright (c) 2010, The MathWorks, Inc.
    All rights reserved.
    
    Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 
    modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are 
    met:
    
        * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 
          notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
        * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 
          notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in 
          the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution
        * Neither the name of the The MathWorks, Inc. nor the names 
          of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived 
          from this software without specific prior written permission.
          
    THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" 
    AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 
    IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 
    ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE 
    LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR 
    CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF 
    SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS 
    INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN 
    CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) 
    ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE 
    POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
      

Languages:

EARTH_SPHERE is available in a MATLAB version.

Related Data and Programs:

earth_sphere_test

SPHERE_GRID, a MATLAB library which provides a number of ways of generating grids of points, or of points and lines, or of points and lines and faces, over the unit sphere.

SPHERE_STEREOGRAPH, a MATLAB library which computes the stereographic mapping between points on the unit sphere and points on the plane Z = 1; a generalized mapping is also available

SPHERE_XYZ_DISPLAY, a MATLAB program which reads XYZ information defining points in 3D, and displays a unit sphere and the points in the MATLAB 3D graphics window.

Reference:

1. Geodetic datum, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodetic_system

Source Code:

• earth_sphere.m, the source code.
• timestamp.m, prints the YMDHMS date as a timestamp.

Examples and Tests:

• earth_sphere_test.m, calls all the tests;
• earth_sphere_test.sh, runs all the tests;
• earth_sphere_test.txt, the output file;
• earth_sphere_test.png, a PNG snapshot of the graphics;