Read Me

simpletest.py is the simple example given in the Basemap docstrings.

simpletest_oo.py is the same example, but using the "OO" interface (does
not import pylab).

test.py exercises all the available map projections by plotting the etopo 
20 minute bathymetry/topography data using imshow.

contour_demo.py demonstrates the use of filled contours with map projections.

plotmap.py is the example on the matplotlib 'screenshots' page (included
in test.py) which shows the ETOPO topography as an image on a Lambert
Conformal projection (using imshow).

plotmap_pcolor.py plots the ETOPO topography using pcolor, on a Lambert 
Conformal and Orthographic projection.

nytolondon.py shows how to draw a great circle on a map (NY to London)

ireland.py draws maps of ireland with the crude, low and intermediate
resolution boundary datasets. It also shows how to pickle and re-load a
Basemap class instance (useful for high-res coastlines when you are plotting
the same small map region many times in different scripts).

quiver_demo.py shows how to plot wind vectors on a map.

randompoints.py demonstrates the use of scatter to plot randomly distributed
points on the earth.

ortho_demo.py demonstrates the orthographic projection - you can interactively
enter the reference lat/lon (the viewpoint of the satellite).

fcstmaps.py is a sample multi-panel plot.  Care is taken to preserve the aspect ratio of the map in each panel, and a common title and colorbar is created.  
Requires the opendap module (http://opendap.oceanografia.org) and an 
active internet connection to fetch the data to be plotted.

wiki_example.py is the example from the MatplotlibCookbook scipy wiki page
(http://www.scipy.org/wikis/topical_software/MatplotlibCookbook/wikipage_view).

plotclimdiv.py is an example that shows how to draw 
boundaries (like counties, or in this case 'climate divisions') from
and ESRI shapefile. 

hurrtrack.py plots hurricane tracks from shapefile data 
(from nationalatlas.gov).