Globe Display

The Globe Display

The Globe display is a 3-D view of geospatial data, capable of mapping terrain relief or other data for an entire planet viewed from space.

The Globe Display Compared with the Orthographic Projection

This example illustrates the differences between a 2-D orthographic projection, which looks spherical but is really flat, and a 3-D Globe display.

Use Opacity and Transparency in Globe Displays

This example shows how to create an opaque surface to hide lines on the far side of a globe.

Over-the-Horizon 3-D Views Using Camera Positioning Functions

You can create a dramatic 3-D view of a globe by positioning the camera over one location in a Globe display and pointing the camera towards a second location.

Display a Rotating Globe

You can animate a globe by repeatedly changing the view of the Globe display.

Shade and Light Terrain Maps

Light a Terrain Map of a Region

This example shows how to add lighting and shading to terrain maps, and how to set the surface reflectance properties.

Light a Global Terrain Map

This example shows how to illuminate a globe display with multiple lighting sources of different colors.

Surface Relief Shading

A shaded-relief map models illumination over a surface to highlight the texture of the surface.

Colored Surface Shaded Relief

This example shows how to illuminate surface texture over colored elevation data using shaded relief computations.

Relief Mapping with Light Objects

This example shows how to illuminate surface texture over colored elevation data using a light source.

Colormaps for Terrain Data

Colormaps are ordered progressions of colors that vary with elevation or depth. Some colormaps use colors that clarify the land-sea interface.

Drape Data on Elevation Maps

Drape Data on Elevation Maps

You can drape satellite data over a grid of elevations in order to see the topography of the surface.

Drape Geoid Heights Over Topography

This example shows how to drape the figure of the Earth, shown as an attribute (color) data grid, on topographic relief.

Combine Dissimilar Grids by Converting Regular Grid to Geolocated Data Grid

This example shows how to combine an elevation data grid and an attribute data grid that cover the same region but are gridded differently.

Drape Geolocated Grid on Regular Data Grid via Texture Mapping

This example shows how to create a new regular data grid that covers the region of the geolocated data grid. You can embed the color data values into the new matrix.