Tropict: A clearer depiction of the tropics.

Tropict is a set of python and R scripts that adjust the globe to make land masses in the tropics fill up more visual real estate. It does this by exploiting the ways continents "fit into" each other, splicing out wide areas of empty ocean and nestling the continents closer together.

All Tropict scripts are designed to show the region between 30° S and 30° N. In an equirectangular projection, that looks like this:

By removing open ocean and applying the Gall-Peters projection, we can see the land much more clearly:

The following scripts are included in the Tropict package:

splice_grid.py - Tropict a gridded file.

Syntax: python splice_grid.py <inputfile> <outputfile>

splice_grid can operate on netCDF files or images. In either case, the original file must be a consist of an equirectangular grid, from 180°W to 180°E and 30°N to 30°S.

To operate on a netCDF files, <outputfile> must have a .nc4 extension. The dimensions must include a lat or latitude dimension and a lon or longitude dimension. All variables using these dimensions will be converted. The result will be 2079 x 900 grid pixels, in the same orientation as the original. Ocean areas should either have the missing value or a value greater than MAX_NCDF_VALUE (specified at the top of the file).

To operate on an image file, both <inputfile> and <outputfile> must use extensions specified in the Pillow documentation. Ocean areas should either be specified as pure white (255, 255, 255) or one of the colors in OVERWRITABLE_COLORS, pure blue (0, 0, 255) by default.

Examples: See examples/process_ncdf.sh and examples/process_image.sh.

make_shapefile.py - Tropict a shapefile.

Syntax: python make_shapefile.py <inputpath> <outputpath>

Produce a new tropicted shapefile and a translation configuration file (a .tsr file) specifying the shifts for doing the tropiction.

The configuration for make_shapefile.py is specified near the top of the file, and consists of information for identifying Hawaii. Two methods are provided:

1. By record. If Hawaii is included with a single MultiPolygon record-- even if that MultiPolygon includes other features such as the rest of the United States-- set CHECK_HAWAII_IN_RECORD to True. SHAPEFILE_REGION_FIELD specifies a field within each record (e.g. "name"), and SHAPEFILE_HAWAII_REGION specifies the value for that field for the record containing Hawaii (e.g., "United States").

2. If CHECK_HAWAII_IN_RECORD is False, Hawaii will be extracted using a rectangular box as specified by HAWAII_REGION (by default, 165°W to 150°W, 15°N to 25°N).

Example: See examples/process_shapefile.sh.

slave_shapefile.py - Tropict a shapefile according like another one.

Syntax: python slave_shapefile.py <tsrfile> <inputpath> <outputpath>

The normal make_shapefile.py script determines the shift distances based on the longitudinal extents of polygons. slave_shapefile.py is useful when two shapefiles are meant to be used together, and tropicted identically, but have polygons with somewhat different extents.

The shifts used by make_shapefile.py are saved to a .tsr file, which specifies the shift for the Old World, the New World, and Hawaii. This file is then passed to slave_shapefile.py to reproduce the shifts.

Example: See examples/process_shapefile.sh.

draw_map.R - Functions to display an image against a tropicted globe.

draw_map.R contains multiple functions as follows.

Example: See examples/example.R.

plotMap - Plot a country-level tropicted globe.

Syntax: plotMap(border)

Plot the boundaries of countries in the tropics, using the color specification border.

addMap - Add a country-level tropicted globe to an existing plot.

Syntax: addMap(border)

Plot the boundaries of countries in the tropics, using the color specification border, atop an existing plot. Typically, such a plot would be produced by splicerImage below.

splicerImage - Draw an array of tropicted data.

Syntax: splicerImage(array, colors, breaks, add)

Generate an image of an already tropicted array in a plot, using the image command. The tropicted array would typically be produced by splice_gird.py.

array: An tropicted array colors: Passed to the image command, specifying the color range for values in array. breaks: (Optional) Passed to the image command if provided. add: (Optional, default=F) If add = T, add to an existing plot; otherwise, create a new one.

addSeams - Draw lines where oceans were removed.

Syntax: addSeams(col)

Add lines to an existing plot between the Old World and the New World (in both directions) and around Hawaii. The color of the seams is specified by col.