Stereographic Projection

$image\stereographic.png$

North America

(Other continents included to show distortion of objects far away from projection center)

Central Longitude: -90

Central Latitude: 45

Projection Characteristics

The Stereographic projection is an azimuthal, conformal projection. In a Stereographic projection, scale is constant along any circle circumscribed around the center of the projection. Distortion is minimal at the center and becomes extreme with distance from the center. Generally, this projection is not used for regions larger than a continent or a hemisphere due to distortion effects. The Stereographic projection is often used for maps of the poles.

Projection Parameters

Parameter	Description
Name	Specifies the units used in the map.
Scale	Specifies the unit scale of the projected map, relative to meters. For example, a scale of one means one unit in the projected map equals one meter; a scale of two means two units in the projected map equal one meter; etc.
False Easting	Specifies the false easting, or horizontal offset, of the projected coordinates, in meters. False Eastings and False Northings are added to the underlying "projected" coordinates as a way to arbitrarily offset their internal XY coordinates after the projection. Unless you have a reason for using these offset values, do not use them. These values do not affect the latitude/longitude coordinates for the map, only the internal coordinates used to plot the map on the screen. If you use False Easting and False Northing offsets for a map, any subsequent boundaries you append to the map must also use these same offsets if you want the imported boundaries to be drawn in the correct relative position to the existing boundaries.
False Northing	Specifies the false northing, or vertical offset, of the projected coordinates, in meters. See above.
Central Scale Factor (KO)	Specifies the central scaling factor for the projection. This value is often set to 1.0, but may be set to another value for specific applications.
Central Longitude	Specifies the central longitude of the projection in degrees. The Central Longitude value typically should be defined as the longitudinal center of the map you are going to produce.
Central Latitude	Specifies the central latitude of the projection in degrees. The Central Latitude value typically should be defined as the latitudinal center of the map you are going to produce.