When to Use Equidistant Conic Projection?

James H. Sterling
James H. Sterling
• • 6 min read

This Projection Often Serves as a Compromise Between Lambert Conformal Conic Lambert Conformal Conic a Lambert Conformal Conic Projection (Lcc) Is a Conic Map...

When to Use Equidistant Conic Projection?

This projection often serves as a compromise between Lambert conformal conic

Lambert conformal conic
A Lambert conformal conic projection (LCC) is a conic map projection used for aeronautical charts, portions of the State Plane Coordinate System, and many national and regional mapping systems. ... Conceptually, the projection seats a cone over the sphere of the Earth and projects the surface conformally onto the cone.
› Lambert_conformal_conic_projection
and Albers equal-area conic projections. It is best suited for land masses extending in an east-to-west orientation at mid-latitudes when area, directions, and angles do not need to be maintained.

What is a conic projection best used for?

Conic map projections are best suited for use as regional or hemispheric maps, but rarely for a complete world map. The distortion in a conic map makes it inappropriate for use as a visual of the entire Earth but does make it great for use visualizing temperate regions, weather maps, climate projections, and more.

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What is a conic projection good for showing?

In the conic projection the graticule is projected onto a cone tangent, or secant, to the globe along any small circle (usually a mid-latitude parallel). ... Because of this problem, conic projections are best suited for maps of mid-latitude regions, especially those elongated in an east- west direction.

James H. Sterling

James H. Sterling

Environmental Science & Climate Journalist
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James Sterling reports on renewable energy developments, climate policy, ecological conservation, and green tech innovations around the globe.