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_oo.py is a version of plotmap.py that does not import pylab - it uses
the matplotlib OO interface instead.

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).

fillstates.py is an example that shows how to draw 
and fill polygons (in this case U.S. States) from
and ESRI shapefile. 

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

testgdal.py is an example that shows how to plot raster geospatial data
using the gdal module (http://gdal.maptools.org).  Requires two data
files that must be downloaded manually, see docstrings for URLs.