Re: mpAreaNames

From: Heiko Klein (Heiko.Klein AT XXXXXX)
Date: Thu Jul 08 2004 - 02:20:46 MDT


Dave,

thank you very much for your information. I managed now to plot all
countries I need from the Earth..2 database. If you have it at hand,
could you send me the program you used to print the names included into
the database, as example on how to use the database.

I'm now wondering where the data of the Ncarg4_1 database is coming
from. Do you know about any references? It seems to be much more
up-to-date than the CIA World Database 2 (which corresponds to 1980).

I'm mainly interested in political boundaries. While the
coastline-boundaries from the RANGS database are more than good enough,
even in MediumResolution, the resolution while plotting some smaller
European country, i.e. Netherlands is quite low. Do you or anybody in
the list know about a free higher resolution database for political
boundaries?

Best regards,

Heiko

David Brown wrote:
> Heiko,
>
> You are correct that the documentation for mpAreaNames is out of date
> and needs updating. We will put this
> on our to-do list and hopefully it can be corrected very soon. Meanwhile
> let me explain the current status.
>
> Assuming the mpDataBaseVersion is set to "Ncarg4_1" or "MediumRes", you
> can select from a choice of three map
> datasets, "Earth..1", "Earth..2", or "Earth..3", using the mpDataSetName
> resource. The default is "Earth..2" but
> unfortunately the HLU documentation only discusses "Earth..1", which is
> somewhat older. However, you can
> find the "Earth..2" dataset described in documentation for the NCARG low
> level utilities at:
> http://ngwww.ucar.edu/ngdoc/ng/supplements/ezmap/earth..2.areas.html
>
> "Earth..3", which differs only in that the US states are subdivided by
> climatic region rather than by county, is
> documented at:
> http://ngwww.ucar.edu/ngdoc/ng/supplements/ezmap/earth..3.areas.html
> with graphic illustrations of the divisions at:
> http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/onlineprod/drought/statelist.html
>
> Regarding the actual areas you were unable to find, it is true that
> Monaco is too small to be properly represented
> at the scale of the "MediumRes" map database, so it is absent. "Serbia
> and Montenegro" are still referenced
> by the name "Yugoslavia", which was correct until February, 2003,
> according to:
> http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/yi.html
>
> If you have other difficulties using mpAreaNames, please let me know.
> -dave
>
>
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