geoglobe

Create geographic globe

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Syntax

geoglobe(parent)
geoglobe(parent,Name,Value)
g = geoglobe(___)

Description

example

geoglobe(parent) creates a geographic globe in the specified figure, panel, or tab group. The figure must be created using the uifigure function. For information about navigating the globe, see Geographic Globe Navigation.

The geographic globe requires hardware graphics support for WebGL™. For more information, see Tips.

example

geoglobe(parent,Name,Value) specifies additional options for the globe using one or more name-value pair arguments. Specify the options after all other input arguments. For a list of options, see GeographicGlobe.

g = geoglobe(___) returns a GeographicGlobe object. This syntax is useful for controlling the properties of the geographic globe.

Examples

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Display a geographic globe in a figure created using the uifigure function.

uif = uifigure;
g = geoglobe(uif);

A geographic globe.

Create a geographic globe. Specify the basemap using a name-value pair.

uif = uifigure;
g = geoglobe(uif,'Basemap','landcover');

A geographic globe with the 'landcover' basemap.

Change the basemap of an existing geographic globe by using the geobasemap function.

geobasemap(g,'streets-dark')

A geographic globe with the 'streets-dark' basemap.

Create a tab group that fills an entire figure. To make the group fill the figure, specify the width and height of the group as the width and height of the figure. Then, display a geographic globe in each tab.

uif = uifigure;
pos = [0 0 uif.Position(3) uif.Position(4)];
tgroup = uitabgroup(uif,'Position',pos);

tab1 = uitab(tgroup,'Title','Default Basemap');
g1 = geoglobe(tab1);

tab2 = uitab(tgroup,'Title','Gray Terrain Basemap');
g2 = geoglobe(tab2,'Basemap','grayterrain');

A geographic globe in a figure with two tabs, Default Basemap and Gray Terrain Basemap.

Input Arguments

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Parent container, specified as a Figure object created using the uifigure function, a Panel object, or a Tab object.

Name-Value Pair Arguments

Specify optional comma-separated pairs of Name,Value arguments. Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name must appear inside quotes. You can specify several name and value pair arguments in any order as Name1,Value1,...,NameN,ValueN.

Example: geoglobe(uif,'Basemap','streets') sets the basemap of the geographic globe

Note

The properties listed here are only a subset. For a full list, see GeographicGlobe.

Map on which to plot data, specified as one of the values listed in the table. Six of the basemaps in the table are tiled data sets created using Natural Earth. Five of the basemaps are high-zoom-level maps hosted by Esri®.

'satellite' basemap.

'satellite'

Full global basemap composed of high-resolution satellite imagery.

Hosted by Esri.

'streets' basemap.

'streets'

General-purpose road map that emphasizes accurate, legible styling of roads and transit networks.

Hosted by Esri.

'topographic' basemap.

'topographic'

General-purpose map with styling to depict topographic features.

Hosted by Esri.

'streets-dark' basemap.

'streets-dark'

Map designed to provide geographic context while highlighting user data on a dark background.

Hosted by Esri.

'landcover' basemap.

'landcover'

Map that combines satellite-derived land cover data, shaded relief, and ocean-bottom relief. The light, natural palette is suitable for thematic and reference maps.

Created using Natural Earth.

'streets-light' basemap.

'streets-light'

Map designed to provide geographic context while highlighting user data on a light background.

Hosted by Esri.

'colorterrain' basemap.

'colorterrain'

Shaded relief map blended with a land cover palette. Humid lowlands are green and arid lowlands are brown.

Created using Natural Earth.

'grayterrain' basemap.

'grayterrain'

Terrain map in shades of gray. Shaded relief emphasizes both high mountains and micro-terrain found in lowlands.

Created using Natural Earth.

'bluegreen' basemap.

'bluegreen'

Two-tone, land-ocean map with light green land areas and light blue water areas.

Created using Natural Earth.

'grayland' basemap.

'grayland'

Two-tone, land-ocean map with gray land areas and white water areas.

Created using Natural Earth.

'darkwater' basemap.

'darkwater'

Two-tone, land-ocean map with light gray land areas and dark gray water areas. This basemap is installed with MATLAB®.

Created using Natural Earth.

Not applicable.

Custom basemap added using the addCustomBasemap function.

All basemaps except 'darkwater' require Internet access. The 'darkwater' basemap is included with MATLAB and Mapping Toolbox™.

If you do not have consistent access to the Internet, you can download the basemaps created using Natural Earth onto your local system by using the Add-On Explorer. The basemaps hosted by Esri are not available for download. For more about downloading basemaps and changing the default basemap on your local system, see Access Basemaps and Terrain for Geographic Globe.

Alignment of boundaries and region labels are a presentation of the feature provided by the data vendors and do not imply endorsement by MathWorks®.

Example: g = geoglobe(uifigure,'Basemap','bluegreen')

Example: g.Basemap = 'bluegreen'

Data Types: char | string

Terrain data, specified as one of these values:

  • 'gmted2010' – Tiled global terrain derived from the GMTED2010 model by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and hosted by MathWorks. Internet access is required to use 'gmted2010'.

  • 'none' – No terrain.

  • String scalar or character vector – Name of custom terrain added using the addCustomTerrain function.

Size and location, specified as a four-element vector of the form [left bottom width height]. By default, MATLAB measures the values in units normalized to the container. To change the units, set the Units property.

  • The left and bottom elements define the distance from the lower-left corner of the container figure, panel, or tab to the lower-left corner of the position boundary.

  • The width and height elements are the position boundary dimensions.

This red line in this figure shows the position boundary of the geographic globe.

A geographic globe with a red rectangular border along the boundary.

Position units, specified as one of these values.

UnitsDescription
'normalized' (default)Units normalized with respect to the container, which is typically the figure or a panel. The lower left corner of the container is (0,0) and the upper right corner is (1,1).
'inches'Inches.
'centimeters'Centimeters.
'characters'

Units based on the default uicontrol font of the graphics root object:

  • The character width is the width of the letter x.

  • The character height is the distance between the baselines of two lines of text.

'points'Typography points. One point equals 1/72 inch.
'pixels'

Pixels.

Distances in pixels are independent of your system resolution on Windows® and Macintosh systems.

  • On Windows systems, a pixel is 1/96th of an inch.

  • On Macintosh systems, a pixel is 1/72nd of an inch.

  • On Linux® systems, the size of a pixel is determined by your system resolution.

When specifying the units as a name-value pair during object creation, specify the Units name-value pair before specifying name-value pairs that use those units, for example Position.

Limitations

  • Geographic globes are not supported in the Live Editor or MATLAB Online™.

  • If multiple windows requiring WebGL are open at once, then the geographic globe may display this error: 

    Globe Viewer needs to close because the WebGL context has been lost.

More About

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Geographic Globe Navigation

Interactively navigate the globe using your mouse.

  • Pan by left-clicking and dragging.

  • Zoom by scrolling or by right-clicking and dragging.

  • Tilt and rotate by holding Ctrl and dragging or by middle-clicking and dragging.

On a touch screen, navigate the globe using gestures.

  • Pan by dragging one finger.

  • Zoom by pinching two fingers.

  • Tilt by dragging two fingers in the same direction.

  • Rotate by dragging two fingers in a circle.

To programmatically navigate the globe, use the campos, camheight, camheading, campitch, and camroll object functions.

Tips

  • The geographic globe requires hardware graphics support for WebGL. To determine if your system has hardware graphics support for WebGL, display axes in a figure created using the uifigure function. Get renderer info about the axes using the rendererinfo function. Then, query the GraphicsRenderer property. Your system has hardware graphics support if the GraphicsRenderer property has a value of 'WebGL'.

    fig = uifigure;
ax = axes(fig);
info = rendererinfo(ax);
info.GraphicsRenderer
    ans =

    'WebGL'

  • If you create a geographic globe with no output argument, then you can assign the globe to a variable later by using the findall function. If there is more than one geographic globe, then findall returns a vector of globe objects.

    uif = uifigure;
geoglobe(uif)
g = findall(groot,'Type','globe');

    If there is more than one geographic globe, then findall returns a vector of globe objects.

    uif = uifigure;
geoglobe(uif)
uif2 = uifigure;
geoglobe(uif2)
g = findall(groot,'Type','globe')
    g = 

  2×1 GeographicGlobe array:

  GeographicGlobe
  GeographicGlobe

See Also

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Introduced in R2020a

Mapping Toolbox Documentation

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