How to plot a line between two points on a cartopy map ?

Introduction

When working with geospatial data, it is often necessary to plot lines between two points on a map. This can be done using various mapping packages, including cartopy. Cartopy is an open-source Python package designed for working with geospatial data. It provides an easy-to-use interface for creating maps and visualizing geographical data.

Plotting a Line between Two Points on a Cartopy Map

To plot a line between two points on a cartopy map, we first need to import the necessary packages. This includes cartopy and matplotlib:

from matplotlib.pyplot import figure

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import cartopy.crs as ccrs

Next, we need to define the two points we want to plot a line between. For example let's plot a line between New-York and Paris:

ny_lat = 40.7128
ny_lon = - 74.0060

paris_lat = 48.8566
paris_lon = 2.3522

We then need to specify the projection we want to use for our map. Cartopy supports various projections, including PlateCarree (default), Mercator, and Robinson. For this example, we will use the PlateCarree projection.

fig = figure(num=None, figsize=(12, 10), dpi=100, edgecolor='k')

map_proj = ccrs.PlateCarree()

ax = plt.axes(projection=map_proj)

we can add any desired features to our map, such as coastlines or gridlines,

ax.set_global()
ax.gridlines()

ax.coastlines(linewidth=0.5, color='k', resolution='50m')

and plot a line between the two points:

plt.plot([ny_lon, paris_lon], [ny_lat, paris_lat],
         color='coral', linewidth=2, marker='o')

and display or save the figure:

plt.title('How to plot a line between two points on a cartopy map ?')

plt.savefig("plot_line_cartopy_02.png", bbox_inches='tight', facecolor='white')

plt.show()

This will result in a map with a straight line connecting the two points:

Plotting a Line between New-York and Paris

from matplotlib.pyplot import figure

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import cartopy.crs as ccrs

fig = figure(num=None, figsize=(12, 10), dpi=100, edgecolor='k')

map_proj = ccrs.PlateCarree()

ny_lat = 40.7128
ny_lon = - 74.0060

paris_lat = 48.8566
paris_lon = 2.3522

ax = plt.axes(projection=map_proj)

ax.set_global()
ax.gridlines()

ax.coastlines(linewidth=0.5, color='k', resolution='50m')

plt.plot([ny_lon, paris_lon], [ny_lat, paris_lat],
         color='coral', linewidth=2, marker='o')

plt.title('How to plot a line between two points on a cartopy map ?')

plt.savefig("plot_line_cartopy_02.png", bbox_inches='tight', facecolor='white')

plt.show()

Transforming line projection

By default, the line uses PlateCarree as a projection. If you modify the line

plt.plot([ny_lon, paris_lon], [ny_lat, paris_lat],
         color='coral', linewidth=2, marker='o')

to include transform=ccrs.PlateCarree(), such as in the example below:

plt.plot([ny_lon, paris_lon], [ny_lat, paris_lat],
         color='coral', linewidth=2, marker='o',transform=ccrs.PlateCarree())

you will obtain the same plot.

On Earth, the shortest distance between two points is not a straight line, but rather a curved line. To achieve this, simply transform the line to Geodetic. Geodetic is a mathematical concept that considers the curvature of the Earth's surface when calculating distance and direction. When plotting a line between two points on a cartopy map, it is important to take into account this curvature in order to accurately represent the shortest distance between the two points.

plt.plot([ny_lon, paris_lon], [ny_lat, paris_lat],
         color='coral', linewidth=2, marker='o',transform=ccrs.Geodetic())

Code:

from matplotlib.pyplot import figure

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import cartopy.crs as ccrs
import matplotlib.patches as mpatches

fig = figure(num=None, figsize=(12, 10), dpi=100, edgecolor='k')

map_proj = ccrs.PlateCarree()

ny_lat = 40.7128
ny_lon = - 74.0060

paris_lat = 48.8566
paris_lon = 2.3522

ax = plt.axes(projection=map_proj)

ax.set_global()
ax.gridlines()

ax.coastlines(linewidth=0.5, color='k', resolution='50m')

plt.plot([ny_lon, paris_lon], [ny_lat, paris_lat],
         color='coral', linewidth=2, marker='o',transform=ccrs.Geodetic())

plt.title('How to plot a line between two points on a cartopy map ?')

plt.savefig("plot_line_cartopy_03.png", bbox_inches='tight', facecolor='white')

plt.show()

This will result in a map with a curved line connecting the two points:

Alternative map projection: Robinson

Utilizing an alternative map projection, such as Robinson, and incorporating geodesic transformation

from matplotlib.pyplot import figure

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import cartopy.crs as ccrs
import matplotlib.patches as mpatches

fig = figure(num=None, figsize=(12, 10), dpi=100, edgecolor='k')

map_proj = ccrs.Robinson()

ny_lat = 40.7128
ny_lon = - 74.0060

paris_lat = 48.8566
paris_lon = 2.3522

ax = plt.axes(projection=map_proj)

ax.set_global()
ax.gridlines()

ax.coastlines(linewidth=0.5, color='k', resolution='50m')

plt.plot([ny_lon, paris_lon], [ny_lat, paris_lat],
         color='coral', linewidth=2, marker='o',transform=ccrs.Geodetic())

plt.title('How to plot a line between two points on a cartopy map ?')

plt.savefig("plot_line_cartopy_04.png", bbox_inches='tight', facecolor='white')

plt.show()

This will result in a map with a curved line connecting the two points:

References