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    Chart Projections PDF

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    Nikhil Reddy
    This document discusses different types of chart projections used in navigation including the Gnomonic and Mercator projections. The Gnomonic projection maps great circles as straight lines and has minimal distortion within 1,000 miles of tangency, making it useful for polar regions, while the Mercator projection is the most widely used for other areas due to its ability to accurately measure position, distance, and direction with straight rhumb lines and scaled latitude. Both projections have advantages and disadvantages for different navigation needs.

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    Chart Projections PDF

    Uploaded by

    Nikhil Reddy
    311 views2 pages
    This document discusses different types of chart projections used in navigation including the Gnomonic and Mercator projections. The Gnomonic projection maps great circles as straight lines and has minimal distortion within 1,000 miles of tangency, making it useful for polar regions, while the Mercator projection is the most widely used for other areas due to its ability to accurately measure position, distance, and direction with straight rhumb lines and scaled latitude. Both projections have advantages and disadvantages for different navigation needs.

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    This document discusses different types of chart projections used in navigation including the Gnomonic and Mercator projections. The Gnomonic projection maps great circles as straight lines and has minimal distortion within 1,000 miles of tangency, making it useful for polar regions, while the Mercator projection is the most widely used for other areas due to its ability to accurately measure position, distance, and direction with straight rhumb lines and scaled latitude. Both projections have advantages and disadvantages for different navigation needs.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    311 views2 pages

    Chart Projections PDF

    Uploaded by

    Nikhil Reddy
    This document discusses different types of chart projections used in navigation including the Gnomonic and Mercator projections. The Gnomonic projection maps great circles as straight lines and has minimal distortion within 1,000 miles of tangency, making it useful for polar regions, while the Mercator projection is the most widely used for other areas due to its ability to accurately measure position, distance, and direction with straight rhumb lines and scaled latitude. Both projections have advantages and disadvantages for different navigation needs.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    NAVIGATION

    Chart Projections
    A chart projection is a way to project the earth’s surface, which is
    spherical, onto paper, which is flat. So there will always be distortion.
    The navigator must know the different types of chart projections
    and the principles of their constructions, so that the chart projection
    that will have the least possible distortion for a particular area can
    be chosen.

    Types of Projections � Gnomonic


    � Lambert Conformal
    � Mercator
    � Polar Stereographic
    � Polyconic.

    Each projection has its own advantages and disadvantages. The most
    popular for navigational charts are the Gnomonic and Mercator
    projections. Gnomonic charts are usually used for the Polar Regions,
    while Mercator charts are usually used for the remaining areas on
    earth.

    Gnomonic Chart A Gnomonic chart, sometimes called a “Great Circle Chart”, is


    constructed on the gnomonic projection. It is a geometrical
    projection in which surface features and the reference lines of the
    sphere are projected outward from the center of the earth onto a
    tangent plane. A Gnomonic chart is often used to transfer a great
    circle to a Mercator chart.

    Advantages � A great circle is drawn as a straight line;

    � Distortion is tolerable within 1,000 miles of the point of


    tangency;

    � The polar region can be shown.

    Disadvantages � It is not conformal (orthomorphic), so the true shapes are


    presented only near the region of tangency;

    � Rhumb lines cannot be drawn as straight lines;

    � Distance and direction cannot be measured directly.

    CAPT. KHAN THE SHIP OFFICER’S HANDBOOK


    NAVIGATION

    Mercator Chart The Mercator is the projection most widely used in marine
    navigation, except for the areas of the poles. It is a cylindrical
    projection. Imagine a cylinder rolled around the earth, tangent at the
    equator, and parallel to the earth’s axis. Meridians appear as straight
    vertical lines when projected outward onto the cylinder from within
    the earth. The amount of lateral distortion steadily increases with
    distance from the equator. Consequently, the latitude scale must be
    expanded to maintain true shape. The latitude scale is expanded
    mathematically on all Mercator charts.

    Advantages � It is orthomorphic; therefore, the navigator can see the shape of
    the land correctly on the chart.

    � Position, distance, and direction can all be easily determined.


    The distance can be measured from latitude scale.

    � The meridians and parallels are always at right angles; therefore,


    the rhumb line can be drawn as a straight line on the chart.

    Disadvantages � Great circles cannot be drawn as straight lines.

    � The higher latitudes are stretched, so that the shape of the land
    further north is stretched vertically.

    � The areas near the poles cannot be shown on the chart.

    CAPT. KHAN THE SHIP OFFICER’S HANDBOOK

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