r/cartography • u/ign__o • 8d ago

Projection onto Four Circles?

I've been wondering if there is a kind of map/projection that takes advantage of the fact that the surface area of a sphere is exactly four times the area of a circle with the same radius. I'm not sure if/how much it would end up distorting the image of the surface of the sphere, how useful it would be, or even exactly what it would look like. Is there a name for this kind of map (if it exists)? Thanks!

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u/neamsheln 4d ago

You could just do four azimuthal projections at four points on the globe to get what you're talking about. You could find points equally spaced from each other, you could center them on the North/South/East/West hemispheres, or pick centers of the primary continents.

If you want them connected, I think they'd turn into some type of polyhedral projection.