CineSat Projections
		CineSat provides you with the 63 most frequently used map projections. This ensures that you can read in image data from virtually any standard map format and provide to your clients nicely tailored views of your weather products.
		CineSat Projection Capabilities     Palette of 63 map projections 10 projections onto planes (azimuthal) 42 projections onto cylinders 10 projections onto cones Miscellaneous projections (1)     User configurable map parameters     Spherical and ellipsoidal earth models     Resampling: Nearest Neighbor, Bi-linear, and Bi-cubic Splines
		CineSat supports projections onto planes, cylinders, and cones. For each projection surface you may choose among three basic projection properties: equi-distant equal-area (equivalent) and conformal (equal-angles, shape preserving)
	Projections onto Planes
		Azimuthal projections map the Earth onto either a tangent plane or an intersecting plane (NPOL and SPOL). The projection planes are in special pose for the NPOL, SPOL, and GEOSAT projections. For all other azimuthal maps you can select the projection plane by specifying the tangent point's longitude and latitude. CineSat provides you with the following azimuthal map projections:
	Top of page	Classic perspective azimuthal projections *) ORTHO orthographic projection S STEREO stereographic projection (conformal) S GNOMONIC central (gnomonic) projection S NPOL polar-stereographic projection North (conformal) E SPOL polar-stereographic projection South (conformal) E   Satellite perspective azimuthal projections GEOSAT geostationary satellite projection E VPERSPECT vertical near-sided perspective projection S   Equi-distant & equal area azimuthal projections EDAP equi-distant azimuthal projection S LAZIMUTH Lambert's equal area azimuthal projection S   Pseudo-azimuthal projections HAMMER E.v.Hammer's equal area full earth projection S *) The last column indicates the applied earth model: S =Sphere, E = Ellipsoid
		Classic perspective projections
		CineSat's ORTHO, STEREO, and GNOMONIC projections are simple perspective projections onto a tangent plane. These projections use a sphere model of the earth. Stereographic projections are conformal.
		Above: ORTHO, STEREO, and GNOMONIC projections onto a North pole tangent plane. Below: New York and Vienna centered orthographic projections, and a stereographic view of New York (rightmost) - all built from an infra-red composite of 5 satellites.
	Azimuthal
		Polar-stereographic projections
		The NPOL and SPOL projections are a special case of a stereographic map. The projection plane intersects the earth at a given standard parallel (including the special case of a tangent plane in the North or South pole). The projections are conformal and preserve true scale along the standard parallel. NPOL and SPOL use an ellipsoidal model of the earth.
		NPOL projection example SPOL projection
	Polar-stereographic projection of the European region; IR cloud image together with a land/sea background, geographical net and the major European cities drawn as overlay. Click on the image for a higher resolution display.
	Azimuthal
		Satellite perspective projections
		CineSat provides you with two satellite perspective projections - VPERSPECT and GEOSAT. The GEOSAT projection is the standard map used for earth disk images from geostationary meteorological satellites. GEOSAT uses an ellipsoidal model of the earth. The projection plane has its tangent point in the sub-satellite point on the equator. The satellite is the projection center.
	Meteosat GEOSAT projection Click on the image to enlarge. GMS GEOSAT projection GOES-E GEOSAT projection
		This shows a Meteosat-7 B-format image (European region) in native GEOSAT projection. Click on the image for a higher resolution display.
		With VPERSPECT, the projection center can be in any point above the earth surface (not only above the equator). The Vertical Near-Sided Perspective projection (VPERSPECT) uses a spherical earth model. The following images show a perspective view of the North pole and of Vienna from a distance of 36.000 km.
	Azimuthal
		Equi-distant and equal area projections
		EDAP (equi-distant azimuthal projection) and LAZIMUTH (Lambert's azimuthal equal area projection) are no simple perspective projections, but have been mathematically constructed to provide equi-distant and equal area maps, respectively. They use a spherical model of the earth. The LAZIMUTH projection is a generalization of the ETAP (equivalent transverse azimutal) projection of previous releases.
		EDAP - equi-distant azimuthal projection LAZIMUTH - Lambert's azimuthal equal area projection     Transverse EDAP projection example: Oblique EDAP projection example:
	Azimuthal
		Hammer - a pseudo-azimuthal projection of the world
		HAMMER is a modified azimuthal equal-area projection that shows a map of the full earth.
	Click on the image for a higher resolution display.
	Azimuthal	You can of course choose any center meridian for this projection.
	Projections onto Cylinders
		Cylindrical projections map the earth onto a cylinder which either touches the globe along the equator or intersects it at a given standard parallel. The MERCATOR and MILLER projections use an ellipsoidal earth model, all other cylindrical projections take the sphere model. CineSat provides you with the following 42 cylindrical projections:
	Top of page	Equi-distant cylindrical projections *) EQUIRECT equi-distant rectangular projection S PCARREE plate carrée (equi-distant square projection , Plattkarte); fixed standard parallel at 0° S GALLISO Gall's isographic projection, std parallels at +/-45° S   Equal area cylindrical projections ISOCYL isocylindrical projection S LAMBCYL Lambert's cylindrical projection, std parallel at 0° S BEHRMANN Behrmann projection, std parallels at +/-30° S TRYSTAN Trystan projection, std parallels at +/-37.383° S PETERS Peters projection, std parallels at +/-44.138° S GALLORTHO Gall's orthographic projection, std parallels at +/-45° S BALTHASART Balthasart projection, std parallels at +/-50° S   Conformal & related cylindrical projections MERCATOR Mercator's conformal cylindrical projection E MILLER Miller's projection E   Perspective cylindrical projections GNOMOCYL gnomonic (central) cylindrical perspective S GALLSTEREO Gall's stereographic cylindrical projection S     Transverse cylindrical projections CASSINI transverse plate carrée (equi-distant) S TISOCYL transverse iso-cylindrical (equal area) S TMERCATOR transverse mercator (conformal) S     Pseudo-cylindrical projections ECKERT3, ECKERT4, ECKERT5, GOODE, IGOODE, KAVRAISKY7, MERCSAN, MOLLWEIDE, PUTNINS1, PUTNINS2, PUTNINS3, PUTNINS3P, PUTNINS4P, PUTNINS5, PUTNINS5P, PUTNINS6, PUTNINS6P,ROBINSON, WAGNER2, WAGNER3, WAGNER4, WAGNER6, WAGNER7, WERENSKIOLD1, WINKEL1 S *) The last column indicates the applied earth model: S =Sphere, E = Ellipsoid
		Equi-distant cylindrical projections
		EQUIRECT is the simpliest projection type. It maps the longitude and latitude to a rectangular coordinate system. This projection is frequently used for thematic maps and digital elevation models, since it is very easy to geo-reference. The standard parallel defines the intersecting cylinder. The following subtypes of the EQUIRECT projection have a fixed standard parallel: PCARREE - plate carrée, standard parallel at 0° GALLISO - Gall's isographic projection., std. parallels at +/-45°
	EQUIRECT projection with standard parallel at 0 degree. Click on the image for a higher resolution display.
	Cylindrical	PCARREE projection of Africa GALLISO projection of Europe Click on the images for a higher resolution display or click here to see a Meteosat-7 image in PCARREE projection.
		Equal-area cylindrical projections
		ISOCYL is an equal area cylindrical projection with several subtypes. The standard parallel defines the intersecting cylinder. Whereas the standard parallel of the intersecting cylinder can be specified with the ISOCYL projection, the following subtypes have a fixed standard parallel: LAMBCYL - Lambert's cylindrical projection, std parallel at 0° BEHRMANN - standard parallels at +/-30° TRYSTAN - standard parallels at +/-37.383° PETERS - standard parallels at +/-44.138° GALLORTHO - Gall's orthographic projection, std. par. at +/-45° BALTHASART - standard parallels at +/-50°
	ISOCYL projection with standard parallel at 0°
	LAMBCYL projection of Indonesia
		BEHRMANN projection of Australia TRYSTAN projection of Japan
		PETERS projection of Europe GALLORTHO projection of Europe
	BALTHASART projection of Canada
	Cylindrical
		Mercator and Miller projections
		Mercator's conformal cylindrical projection and the Miller projection are both very popular for world maps. The MILLER projection has been derived from MERCATOR to reduce the exaggeration of polar areas (see example maps below). Both projection types support an ellipsoidal earth model.
	MERCATOR projection MILLER projection Click on the image for a higher resolution display.
	Cylindrical
		Perspective cylindrical projections
		CineSat completes its range of true cylindrical projections by the following two perspective projections: GNOMOCYL - gnomonic (central) cylindrical perspective GALLSTEREO - Gall's stereographic cylindrical projection
	Gnomonic cylindrical projection
	Stereographic cylindrical projection
	Cylindrical
		Transverse cylindrical projections
		This projection type maps the sphere onto a cylinder that touches the Earth along a given meridian. CineSat supports three transverse cylindrical projections: TMERCATOR - transverse mercator (conformal) TISOCYL - transverse iso-cylindrical (equal area) CASSINI - transverse plate carrée (equi-distant)
		TMERCATOR - transverse mercator TISOCYL - transverse iso-cylindrical
		CASSINI - transverse plate carrée CASSINI projection of Great Britain
	Cylindrical	Transverse cylindrical projections are often used for areas with a large North-South extent.
		Pseudo-cylindrical projections
		Pseudo-cylindrical projections are typically used for continental and world maps. They use a spherical earth model. The following drawings show the 25 pseudo-cylindrical projections provided by CineSat. To make them comparable, all projections have the Greenwich center meridian and show the full globe, but CineSat let's you specify any central meridian and of course any map region and scale.
	ECKERT3 elliptical ECKERT4 elliptical equal-area           ECKERT5 sinusoidal MERCSAN sinusoidal (equal-area) projection or Mercator-Sanson-Flamsteed           GOODE homolosine equal-area IGOODE interrupted Goode homolosine           KAVRAISKY7 elliptical MOLLWEIDE elliptical equal-area           PUTNINS1 elliptical PUTNINS2 elliptical           PUTNINS3 parabolic PUTNINS3P parabolic             PUTNINS4P parabolic             PUTNINS5 hyperbolic PUTNINS5P hyperbolic           PUTNINS6 hyperbolic PUTNINS6P hyperbolic           ROBINSON interpolated WAGNER2 sinusoidal           WAGNER3 sinusoidal WAGNER4 elliptical equal-area           WAGNER6 elliptical WAGNER7 equal-area           WERENSKIOLD1 parabolic WINKEL1 sinusoidal
	America centered Kavraisky VII projection of the world
	Cylindrical
	Projections onto Cones
		Conical projections map the earth either onto a tangent cone or an intersecting cone. The cone's top is located over the North or the South pole. The projection cones can therefore be defined by 1 or 2 intersecting (standard) parallels. Conrical projections are typically used for areas with a large East-West extent. CineSat provides the following conical projections:
	Top of page	The 'Great Three' conical projections *) ISLE equi-distant conical projection by J.N. de l'Isle E ALBERS equal area conical projection by H.C. Albers E LAMBERT conformal conical projection by J.H.Lambert E   Other conical projections EULER Euler projection S MURDOCH1 Murdoch's equi-distant conical projection S MURDOCH2 Murdoch II projection S MURDOCH3 Murdoch's equi-distant, minimum error projection S PCONIC Perspective conic projection S TISSOT Tissot projection S VITKOVSKY1 Vitkovsky projection S *) The last column indicates the applied earth model: S =Sphere, E = Ellipsoid
		The 'Great Three' conical projections
		The most important conical maps used in meteorology are the ISLE (equi-distant), ALBERS (equal area), and LAMBERT (conformal) projections. All three projections use an ellipsoidal earth model. The ISLE projection is an equi-distant conical projection developed by J.N. De l'Isle:
	Conical	ISLE projection of South America. Click on the image for a higher resolution display.
		The ALBERS projection is an equal area conical projection developed by H.C. Albers:
	Conical	Shaded relief image of North America in ALBERS projection. Click on the image for a higher resolution display.
		J.H. LAMBERT has developed a widely used, conformal conical projection:
		Below: LAMBERT maps of Europe, Central Europe, and Australia
	Conical
		Other conical projections
		In addition to the above described 'Great Three', CineSat provides the following 7 conical projections which use a spherical earth model: EULER MURDOCH1 (equi-distant) MURDOCH2 MURDOCH3 (equi-distant with minimum error) PCONIC (perspective conic) TISSOT VITKOVSKY1
	EULER projection MURDOCH1 projection     MURDOCH2 projection MURDOCH3 projection     PCONIC perspective conic projection TISSOT projection       VITKOVSKY1 projection
	Conical
	Miscellaneous Projections
		Van Der Grinten
		CineSat also supports a special projection developed by Van der Grinten (VANDGRINTEN) which maps the full globe into a circle. Some cartographic literature classifies this projection as polyconic.
		An example VANDGRINTEN world cloud map could look like this:
	Top of page	You can of course choose any center meridian for this projection.
	User-configurable Map Parameters
	Top of page	Every projection has a rich set of parameters that can easily be configured to adapt to your image data. A full projection definition consists of projection type (e.g. NPOL, MERCATOR, ...) standard parallel(s) center longitude satellite height (for perspective satellite views) earth radius or spheroid axes map area (size and position in the projection plane) map scale (pixel resolution) The projection cylinders and cones will be cut at center longitude + 180° and unfolded into a plane. For the azimuthal projections, you can rotate the projection plane by defining the vertical meridian. For all projections, you can set zoom (resolution) and pan parameters to get your desired region of interest. All map parameters are stored in projection files with user-defined names. You can then use a projection file name with the PROJECT command to project your images or to generate a map. Although there are a lot of map configuration options, the usage of these parameters is fairly simple. CineSat comes with a number of pre-defined projections to choose from and start with. Modification of these pre-defined projections is an easy way to develop your own weather views.
	Spherical and Ellipsoidal Earth Models
		Before mapping Earth coordinates to a projection surface, the irregular 3-dimensional shape of the Earth - the Geoid - is being approximated by the mathematically more handsome spheroid - i.e. either a sphere or an ellipsoid.
	50 pre-defined spheroids	The selection of the best approximating spheroid depends on the mapped region and the required level of cartographic accuracy. CineSat comes with a configuration file that defines the 50 most important standard cartographic spheroids by their names and axes. It also includes the HRIT ellipsoid which had been defined by the Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites in the HRIT file fomat specifications. Of course, you can use your own sphere or ellipse axes with every CineSat projection. The ellipsoidal shape of the earth is used by the most important azimuthal, cylindrical, and conical projections. All other projections use the sphere model with a user-defined or a default earth radius.
	Top of page	Standard spheroids significantly increase the interoperability of CineSat with GIS systems and other data sources. They also increase the accuracy of all geographic computations derived from image positions, like point distances and motion vector speeds.
	Resampling: Nearest Neighbor, Bi-linear, and Bi-cubic Splines
		For every image projection, you can either apply the commonly used nearest neighbor and bi-linear interpolation methods, or a meteorologically tailored bi-cubic spline resampling. The nearest neighbor method will not change pixel values and is recommended for artificial image content, like land masks or cloud images with burnt-in overlays. The method is fast, but has a negative impact on small cloud image structures. The example image below shows the typical nearest neighbor steps in the shape of small cloud cells and cloud borders. On the other hand, the bi-cubic spline method provided by CineSat is very well suited for producing nice-to-view cloud displays, and for pre-processing images that are intended to be fed to automatic image analysis programs. Small scale cloud structures are being preserved also in projected images and will lead to far better results for all subsequent image texture and object analysis. The bi-linear interpolation method is a common resampling technique that is faster than bi-cubic splines but slightly blurs image details. Bi-cubic spline results are sharper and will be your first choice for typical meteorological imaging applications.
	Above: Nearest Neighbor resampling: digital steps distort cloud borders and structure Below: Bi-cubic spline resampling: small cloud structures are preserved
	Top of page	CineSat's bi-cubic spline resampling algorithm has been especially developed to accurately rectify and project Meteosat images. The method had been validated and operationally used by the European Space Operations Centre.
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