Mapping Toolbox™ provides algorithms, functions, and an app for analyzing geographic data and creating map displays in MATLAB®. You can import vector and raster data from a wide range of file formats and web map servers. The toolbox lets you subset and customize data using trimming, interpolation, resampling, coordinate transformations, and other techniques. Geospatial data can be combined with base map layers from multiple sources in a single map display. You can export data in file formats such as shapefile, GeoTIFF, and KML. By incorporating mapping functions into MATLAB programs, you can automate frequent tasks in your geospatial workflow.
This example shows how to use the Mapping Toolbox to create a world map.
A map is a representation of geographic data. Map data represents a set of geographic locations or properties.
Geospatial data represents positions on the surface of a planet through ordered coordinate pairs or in matrix format.
Vector geodata consists of sequentially ordered pairs of geographic (latitude, longitude) or projected (x,y) coordinate pairs.
Raster geodata represents map data in matrix format.
Latitude and longitude specify the position of a point on the surface of a planet. They are defined as angles between the point, the equator, and the axis of rotation.
The Earth can be modeled with increasing precision as a perfect sphere, an oblate spheroid, an ellipsoid, or a geoid.
A map projection transforms a curved surface such as the Earth onto a two-dimensional plane. All map projections introduce distortions compared to maps on globes.