The traditional way to calculate the global distortion of a given area in a map projection is to create what we call a local distortion criterion that is a function of the infinitesimal semiaxes of the Tissot's indicatrix. Some contemporary scholars criticize this method, saying that the map readers face distortion of the finite type. These researchers suggest taking plenty of simple random spherical elements (line sections, triangles) and average the distortion on them. Although the aforementioned researchers all state that their approach is something fundamentally different from the traditional method, the major disadvantage is that this method is irreproducible. Therefore, it has to be investigated whether the difference is really significant between these methods and if it is, what its nature is. At first, different distortion values are evaluated on a huge number of various projections showing the whole Earth. Correlation analysis shows that there exists a strong linear dependence between the corresponding infinitesimal and finite measures. A considerable difference can be observed if the examined area is not the whole globe rather a part of it. After optimizing a projection for different distortion measures, the isolines of equal distortion follow the boundary lines significantly closer using the traditional approach.RÉSUMÉ une façon classique pour calculer la distorsion globale pour une surface donnée pour une projection cartographique est de créer ce que l'on appelle un critère local de distorsion qui est une fonction des demi-axes infinitésimaux de l'indicatrice de Tissot. Certains chercheurs contemporains critiquent cette méthode, en disant que les lecteurs de carte font face à la distorsion du type fini. Ces chercheurs suggèrent de prendre de nombreux éléments sphériques aléatoires simples (sections de lignes, triangles) et de calculer leur distorsion. Bien que ces chercheurs déclarent tous que leur approche est fondamentalement différente de la méthode traditionnelle, le principal inconvénient est que leur méthode n'est pas reproductible. Ainsi, il faut examiner si la différence entre ces méthodes est vraiment significative et si c'est le cas, quelle est sa nature. Pour commencer, différentes valeurs de distorsion sont évaluées sur un grand nombre de projections différentes montrant la Terre entière. L'analyse de corrélation ARTICLE HISTORY
Abstract. Recent advancements of technology resulted in greater knowledge of the Solar System and the need for mapping small celestial bodies significantly increased. However, creating a good map of such small objects is a big challenge for the cartographer: they are usually irregular shaped, the usual reference frames like the ellipsoid of revolution is inappropriate for their approximation.A method is presented to develop best-fitting irregular surfaces of revolution that can approximate any irregular celestial body. (Fig. 1.) Then a simple equal-area map projection is calculated to map this reference frame onto a plane. The shape of the resulting map in this projection resembles the shape of the original celestial body.The usefulness of the method is demonstrated on the example of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This comet has a highly irregular shape, which is hard to map. Previously used map projections for this comet include the simple cylindrical, which greatly distorts the surface and cannot depict the depressions of the object. Other maps used the combination of two triaxial ellipsoids as the reference frame, and the gained mapping had low distortion but at the expense of showing the tiny surface divided into 11 maps in different complicated map projections (Nyrtsov et. al., 2018). On the other hand, our mapping displays the comet in one single map with moderate distortion and the shape of the map frame suggests the original shape of the celestial body (Fig. 2. and 3.).
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