Conical projections

In a conic projection, part of the earth is projected as a plane that is wrapped like a cone around the globe. After unrolling the outline of the world would be fan shaped. In case the cone axis would be coinciding with the earth axis, the meridians will be represented as straight lines and parallels as concentric circles.

The mapmaker has to specify a central meridian and two standard parallels. The values for the standard parallel indicate the latitudes where the cone is secant through the earth surface; when the values for both standard parallels are the same, the cone is tangent to the earth surface. The parallel(s) where the cone touches (or intersects) the globe has (or have) the same length as on earth.

Conic projections are suitable for parts of the temperate zones that are located either on the northern hemisphere or on the southern hemisphere.

See also: