Skip to content

GeoMakie.jl

GeoMakie.jl is a Julia package for plotting geospatial data on a given map projection. It is based on the Makie.jl plotting ecosystem.

The package ClimateBase.jl builds upon GeoMakie.jl to create a seamless workflow between analyzing/manipulating climate data, and plotting them.

Installation

This package is in development and may break, although we are currently working on a long-term stable interface.

You can install it from the REPL like so:

julia
]add GeoMakie

GeoAxis

Using GeoMakie.jl is straightforward, although it does assume basic knowledge of the Makie.jl ecosystem.

GeoMakie.jl provides an axis for plotting geospatial data, GeoAxis. Both are showcased in the examples below.

Gotchas

When plotting a projection which has a limited domain (in either longitude or latitude), if your limits are not inside that domain, the axis will appear blank. To fix this, simply correct the limits - you can even do it on the fly, using the xlims!(ax, low, high) or ylims!(ax, low, high) functions.

Useful data sources

  • NaturalEarth.jl provides access to all of the Natural Earth datasets, like coastlines, land polygons, country borders, rivers, and so on.

  • GADM.jl provides access to the GADM cultural data, including the borders of all countries and their sub-divisions,from the GADM dataset (https://gadm.org/)..

  • GeoDatasets.jl provides access to the GSHHG dataset.

  • RasterDataSources.jl

Examples

Surface example

julia
using GeoMakie, CairoMakie

lons = -180:180
lats = -90:90
field = [exp(cosd(l)) + 3(y/90) for l in lons, y in lats]

fig = Figure()
ax = GeoAxis(fig[1,1])
surface!(ax, lons, lats, field; shading = NoShading)
fig

Scatter example

julia
using GeoMakie, CairoMakie

lons = -180:180
lats = -90:90
slons = rand(lons, 2000)
slats = rand(lats, 2000)
sfield = [exp(cosd(l)) + 3(y/90) for (l,y) in zip(slons, slats)]

fig = Figure()
ax = GeoAxis(fig[1,1])
scatter!(slons, slats; color = sfield)
fig

Map projections

The default projection is given by the arguments source = "+proj=longlat +datum=WGS84", dest = "+proj=eqearth", so that if a different one is needed, for example a wintri projection one can do it as follows:

julia
using GeoMakie, CairoMakie

lons = -180:180
lats = -90:90
field = [exp(cosd(l)) + 3(y/90) for l in lons, y in lats]

fig = Figure()
ax = GeoAxis(fig[1,1]; dest = "+proj=wintri")
surface!(ax, lons, lats, field; shading = NoShading)
fig

Changing central longitude

Be careful! Each data point is transformed individually. However, when using surface or contour plots this can lead to errors when the longitudinal dimension "wraps" around the planet.

E.g., if the data have the dimensions

julia
lons = 0.5:359.5
lats = -90:90
field = [exp(cosd(l)) + 3(y/90) for l in lons, y in lats];
360×181 Matrix{Float64}:
 -0.281822  -0.248488  -0.215155  …  5.61818  5.65151  5.68484  5.71818
 -0.282649  -0.249316  -0.215983     5.61735  5.65068  5.68402  5.71735
 -0.284304  -0.250971  -0.217637     5.6157   5.64903  5.68236  5.7157
 -0.286784  -0.25345   -0.220117     5.61322  5.64655  5.67988  5.71322
 -0.290085  -0.256751  -0.223418     5.60992  5.64325  5.67658  5.70992
 -0.294204  -0.260871  -0.227537  …  5.6058   5.63913  5.67246  5.7058
 -0.299136  -0.265802  -0.232469     5.60086  5.6342   5.66753  5.70086
 -0.304874  -0.271541  -0.238208     5.59513  5.62846  5.66179  5.69513
 -0.311413  -0.278079  -0.244746     5.58859  5.62192  5.65525  5.68859
 -0.318743  -0.28541   -0.252077     5.58126  5.61459  5.64792  5.68126
  ⋮                               ⋱                             ⋮
 -0.311413  -0.278079  -0.244746     5.58859  5.62192  5.65525  5.68859
 -0.304874  -0.271541  -0.238208     5.59513  5.62846  5.66179  5.69513
 -0.299136  -0.265802  -0.232469     5.60086  5.6342   5.66753  5.70086
 -0.294204  -0.260871  -0.227537     5.6058   5.63913  5.67246  5.7058
 -0.290085  -0.256751  -0.223418  …  5.60992  5.64325  5.67658  5.70992
 -0.286784  -0.25345   -0.220117     5.61322  5.64655  5.67988  5.71322
 -0.284304  -0.250971  -0.217637     5.6157   5.64903  5.68236  5.7157
 -0.282649  -0.249316  -0.215983     5.61735  5.65068  5.68402  5.71735
 -0.281822  -0.248488  -0.215155     5.61818  5.65151  5.68484  5.71818

a surface! plot with the default arguments will lead to artifacts if the data along longitude 179 and 180 have significantly different values. To fix this, there are two approaches: (1) to change the central longitude of the map transformation, by changing the projection destination used like so:

julia
ax = GeoAxis(fig[1,1]; dest = "+proj=eqearth +lon_0=180")

or (2), circshift your data appropriately so that the central longitude you want coincides with the center of the longitude dimension of the data.

Countries loaded with GeoJSON

julia
using GeoMakie, CairoMakie

# First, make a surface plot
lons = -180:180
lats = -90:90
field = [exp(cosd(l)) + 3(y/90) for l in lons, y in lats]

fig = Figure()
ax = GeoAxis(fig[1,1])
sf = surface!(ax, lons, lats, field; shading = NoShading)
cb1 = Colorbar(fig[1,2], sf; label = "field", height = Relative(0.65))

using NaturalEarth
countries = naturalearth("admin_0_countries", 110)

n = length(countries)
hm = poly!(ax, GeoMakie.to_multipoly(countries.geometry); color= 1:n, colormap = :dense,
    strokecolor = :black, strokewidth = 0.5,
)
translate!(hm, 0, 0, 100) # move above surface plot

fig

Gotchas

With CairoMakie, we recommend that you use image!(ga, ...) or heatmap!(ga, ...) to plot images or scalar fields into ga::GeoAxis.

However, with GLMakie, which is much faster, these methods do not work; if you have used them, you will see an empty axis. If you want to plot an image img, you can use a surface in the following way: surface!(ga, lonmin..lonmax, latmin..latmax, ones(size(img)...); color = img, shading = NoShading).

To plot a scalar field, simply use surface!(ga, lonmin..lonmax, latmin..latmax, field). The .. notation denotes an interval which Makie will automatically sample from to obtain the x and y points for the surface.

API

Missing docstring.

Missing docstring for GeoMakie.to_multipoly. Check Documenter's build log for details.

GeoMakie.geo2basic Function
julia
geo2basic(input)

Takes any GeoInterface-compatible structure, and returns its equivalent in the GeometryBasics.jl package, which Makie is built on.

Currently works for the following traits:

- PointTrait
- LineTrait
- LineStringTrait
- PolygonTrait
- MultiPolygonTrait

source

GeoMakie.GeoAxis Type

GeoMakie.GeoAxis <: Block

No docstring defined.

Attributes

(type ?GeoMakie.GeoAxis.x in the REPL for more information about attribute x)

alignmode, aspect, autolimitaspect, dest, fonts, halign, height, limits, panbutton, source, subtitle, subtitlecolor, subtitlefont, subtitlegap, subtitlelineheight, subtitlesize, subtitlevisible, tellheight, tellwidth, title, titlealign, titlecolor, titlefont, titlegap, titlelineheight, titlesize, titlevisible, valign, width, xautolimitmargin, xaxisposition, xgridcolor, xgridstyle, xgridvisible, xgridwidth, xlabel, xlabelcolor, xlabelfont, xlabelpadding, xlabelrotation, xlabelsize, xlabelvisible, xminorgridcolor, xminorgridstyle, xminorgridvisible, xminorgridwidth, xminortickalign, xminortickcolor, xminorticks, xminorticksize, xminorticksvisible, xminortickwidth, xpankey, xpanlock, xrectzoom, xreversed, xscale, xtickalign, xtickcolor, xtickformat, xticklabelalign, xticklabelcolor, xticklabelfont, xticklabelpad, xticklabelrotation, xticklabelsize, xticklabelspace, xticklabelsvisible, xticks, xticksize, xticksvisible, xtickwidth, xzoomkey, xzoomlock, yautolimitmargin, yaxisposition, ygridcolor, ygridstyle, ygridvisible, ygridwidth, ylabel, ylabelcolor, ylabelfont, ylabelpadding, ylabelrotation, ylabelsize, ylabelvisible, yminorgridcolor, yminorgridstyle, yminorgridvisible, yminorgridwidth, yminortickalign, yminortickcolor, yminorticks, yminorticksize, yminorticksvisible, yminortickwidth, ypankey, ypanlock, yrectzoom, yreversed, yscale, ytickalign, ytickcolor, ytickformat, yticklabelalign, yticklabelcolor, yticklabelfont, yticklabelpad, yticklabelrotation, yticklabelsize, yticklabelspace, yticklabelsvisible, yticks, yticksize, yticksvisible, ytickwidth, yzoomkey, yzoomlock

source

GeoMakie.geoformat_ticklabels Function
julia
geoformat_ticklabels(nums::Vector)

A semi-intelligent formatter for geographic tick labels. Append "ᵒ" to the end of each tick label, to indicate degree.

This will check whether the ticklabel is an integer value (round(num) == num). If so, label as an Int (1 instead of 1.0) which looks a lot cleaner.

Example

julia
julia> geoformat_ticklabels([1.0, 1.1, 2.5, 25])
4-element Vector{String}:
 "1ᵒ"
 "1.1ᵒ"
 "2.5ᵒ"
 "25ᵒ"

source

GeoMakie.meshimage Function
julia
meshimage([xs, ys,] img)
meshimage!(ax, [xs, ys,] img)

Plots an image on a mesh.

Useful for nonlinear transforms where a large image would take too long to transform usefully, but a smaller mesh can still represent the inherent nonlinearity of the space.

This basically plots a mesh with uv coordinates, and textures it by the provided image. Its conversion trait is ImageLike.

Tip

You can control the density of the mesh by the npoints attribute.

Plot type

The plot type alias for the meshimage function is MeshImage.

Attributes

alpha = 1.0 — The alpha value of the colormap or color attribute. Multiple alphas like in plot(alpha=0.2, color=(:red, 0.5), will get multiplied.

clip_planes = automatic — Clip planes offer a way to do clipping in 3D space. You can set a Vector of up to 8 Plane3f planes here, behind which plots will be clipped (i.e. become invisible). By default clip planes are inherited from the parent plot or scene. You can remove parent clip_planes by passing Plane3f[].

colormap = @inherit colormap :viridis — Sets the colormap that is sampled for numeric colors. PlotUtils.cgrad(...), Makie.Reverse(any_colormap) can be used as well, or any symbol from ColorBrewer or PlotUtils. To see all available color gradients, you can call Makie.available_gradients().

colorrange = automatic — The values representing the start and end points of colormap.

colorscale = identity — The color transform function. Can be any function, but only works well together with Colorbar for identity, log, log2, log10, sqrt, logit, Makie.pseudolog10 and Makie.Symlog10.

depth_shift = 0.0 — adjusts the depth value of a plot after all other transformations, i.e. in clip space, where 0 <= depth <= 1. This only applies to GLMakie and WGLMakie and can be used to adjust render order (like a tunable overdraw).

fxaa = true — adjusts whether the plot is rendered with fxaa (anti-aliasing, GLMakie only).

highclip = automatic — The color for any value above the colorrange.

inspectable = true — sets whether this plot should be seen by DataInspector.

inspector_clear = automatic — Sets a callback function (inspector, plot) -> ... for cleaning up custom indicators in DataInspector.

inspector_hover = automatic — Sets a callback function (inspector, plot, index) -> ... which replaces the default show_data methods.

inspector_label = automatic — Sets a callback function (plot, index, position) -> string which replaces the default label generated by DataInspector.

lowclip = automatic — The color for any value below the colorrange.

model = automatic — Sets a model matrix for the plot. This overrides adjustments made with translate!, rotate! and scale!.

nan_color = :transparent — The color for NaN values.

npoints = 100 — The number of points the mesh should have per side. Can be an Integer or a 2-tuple of integers representing number of points per side.

overdraw = false — Controls if the plot will draw over other plots. This specifically means ignoring depth checks in GL backends

shading = NoShading — Sets the lighting algorithm used. Options are NoShading (no lighting), FastShading (AmbientLight + PointLight) or MultiLightShading (Multiple lights, GLMakie only). Note that this does not affect RPRMakie.

space = :data — sets the transformation space for box encompassing the plot. See Makie.spaces() for possible inputs.

ssao = false — Adjusts whether the plot is rendered with ssao (screen space ambient occlusion). Note that this only makes sense in 3D plots and is only applicable with fxaa = true.

transformation = automaticNo docs available.

transparency = false — Adjusts how the plot deals with transparency. In GLMakie transparency = true results in using Order Independent Transparency.

uv_transform = Makie.LinearAlgebra.I — Sets a transform for uv coordinates, which controls how the image is mapped to its rectangular area. The attribute can be I, scale::VecTypes{2}, (translation::VecTypes{2}, scale::VecTypes{2}), any of :rotr90, :rotl90, :rot180, :swapxy/:transpose, :flip_x, :flip_y, :flip_xy, or most generally a Makie.Mat{2, 3, Float32} or Makie.Mat3f as returned by Makie.uv_transform(). They can also be changed by passing a tuple (op3, op2, op1).

visible = true — Controls whether the plot will be rendered or not.

z_level = 0.0 — The z-coordinate given to each mesh point. Useful in 3D transformations.

source