METAR Map Information and Code

About the Java applet:

Map backgrounds:
The map consists of 325 state boundary segments, 537 river segments (at 15 km resolution), and 3860 county boundary segments (at 20 km resolution). These segments, originally in latitude/longitude coordinates, were remapped to Lambert's conformal conic projection, tangent to the globe at 20 degrees north latitude, and centered at a longitude of 95 degrees west. Points on the segments were coded as 2-byte signed integers in the range 0 to 32000, where the point (0,0) is the upper left hand corner of the map. We call this coordinate system 'java-conus-1'

The overview window:
The show overview button on the applet reveals or hides a small window showing a national map. The region shown in the main applet window is indicated as a rectangle in the overview window. You may move or resize the rectangle in the overview window by dragging with the mouse. To move, place the mouse inside the rectangle (the cursor will change to a 4-pointed arrow) and drag. To resize, place the mouse inside but near the rectangle border (the cursor will change to a horizontal or vertical double arrow), then drag. The rectangle's new size and location will be reflected in the main window shortly after you release the mouse button (1-2 seconds on my 166 MHz machine). Tip: if you lose track of the overview window, try clicking the Overview button a few times. Another tip: you can always use the reset button of the applet to bring the map back to its initial configuration (while still showing the currently loaded data).

The code: Note that these may not be the same code as files of the same name in other directories.

These are not well commented yet, and are provided as is. Please provide me with any feedback you wish to at the address below.

Prepared by Bill Moninger (Bill.Moninger@noaa.gov, 303-497-6435)
Last modified: Mon Nov 24 09:08:41 MST 2003