Issue

Obviously, a major subsumption of the planar large-scale structure of the earth’s surface is that existing continental, oceanic, and world maps based upon the (allegedly) spheroidal large-scale structure of the earth’s surface, are necessarily distorted, notwithstanding an apparent degree of fidelity in the case of regional or local maps.

While world maps based upon the planar large-scale structure of the earth’s surface are unlikely to exist in the public domain, it behooves the worldwide community to construct such maps based upon real-world data that does exist in the public domain but heretofore not otherwise applied in such a manner.

The following two examples of such public domain data pointing to grossly underrepresented transoceanic distances in the southern (so-called) hemi[sphere] should convince any reader that there is more than enough publicly available information to triangulate and reposition any location on earth relative to any and every other location, the simple reason being that such systems must operate in the real world—not in the Alice in Wonderland world concocted over the last five centuries.

I. Commercial Air Traffic

The reader is advised to study commercial air trafic as depicted on a Mercator projection. See for example, the interactive display at Flightradar24.

Observing such traffic at any time of the day, it is apparent that there is a significant number of flights across the North Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe, and across the North Pacific Ocean between North America and Asia. The situation is dramatically different south of the equator and in particular, south of the Tropic of Capricorn. There is virtually no direct air traffic across the South Atlantic Ocean between southern South America and South Africa, or across the Indian Ocean from South Africa to Western Australia, or across the South Pacific Ocean from either Australia or New Zealand to southern South America. Transoceanic flights between cities south of the Tropic of Capricorn typically involve stopover destinations north of the equator. Dakar, Senegal is the usual stopover for flights between southern South America and South Africa. Similarly, Dubai is the stopover for flights between Australia and South Africa. Finally, Los Angeles or Houston are the stopovers for flights between southern South America and either Australia or New Zealand. If the earth were a globe, southern transoceanic flights would be direct and based on great circle geometry, thereby transiting close to or (in some cases) over Antarctica. This does not happen.

II. Submarine Cable Map

A similar pattern emerges with the worldwide submarine cable network—that carries about 99% of international communications traffic.¹ See the interactive Submarine Cable Map (Mercator projection) posted by TeleGeography (a division of PriMetrica, Inc.). It will be observed that there are numerous direct cable links across the North Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe and across the North Pacific Ocean between North America and Asia. But again, south of the equator, the situation is entirely different. There are no direct cable links across the South Atlantic Ocean from southern Brazil, Uruguay, or Argentina to southern Angola, Namibia or South Africa. Similarly, there are no direct cable links across the Indian Ocean from South Africa, Mozambique, or Madagascar to Western Australia. Finally, there are no direct cable links across the South Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and Chile.

Moving Forward

Clearly, a map of the world reflecting its true geometric, geographic, and geodetic nature, is required. Development of such a map will not be an easy task but will require many specialists, including, but certainly not limited to, cartographers, geographers, geodesists, astronomers, and earth scientists. Additionally, input from aviators, sailors, and RF operators at all levels is critical. Finally, information technology specialists with the skills to process and re-organize public or commercially available databases and real time data inputs, are indispensible.

Any readers with suggestions in this respect are encouraged to contact this website.

— FINIS —