Natural Earth II – Globes
Download poster-size images of our planet (8,910 x 8,910-pixels)
Data hosted by: Florida State University, FREAC
Data hosted by: Florida State University, FREAC
Boundary overlay (3.0MB)
Center point: 5N, 20E
Boundary overlay (2.4MB)
Center point: 90S, 0E
Boundary overlay (2.9MB)
Center point: 35N, 100E
Boundary overlay (2.4MB)
Center point: 30S, 140E
Boundary overlay (3.0MB)
Center point: 45N, 20E
Boundary overlay (2.6MB)
Center point: 40N, 100W
Boundary overlay (2.9MB)
Center point: 90N, 45W
Boundary overlay (2.4MB)
Center point: 0N, 180E
Boundary overlay (2.6MB)
Center point: 18S, 61W
• The globes, created with Natural Scene Designer 4.0 software, use the Orthographic projection centered on the latitude/longitude coordinates noted for each of the images above. Version 2C of Natural Earth II available on the download page was the reprojected data. The atmosphere vignette and shadow on the lower-right sides of the globes are Adobe Photoshop enhancements. The enhancements are minimal; you may opt to apply more dramatic effects to the globes in Photoshop.
• Because the globes derive from a reprojected map that is north oriented, the direction of illumination and shadows in the shaded relief reverses itself in over-the-pole views, which is confusing. Viewing the globes at a reduced scale partially avoids this problem.
• To place international boundaries on a globe, open a boundary overlay in Photoshop and copy and paste it on its respective globe. Then change the mode of the boundary layer from normal to multiply and adjust the layer opacity as desired. The boundaries, which vary in width depending on their distance from the center of the image and orientation, may require touchups.
• For use on the web or as screen savers, the globes look best when downsampled to 50 percent or less of original size.