[R-sig-Geo] Map projectin for Europe...

[Takatsugu Kobayashi]

Hi,

I has a meteorology project in which I have to map average wind speeds 
over EU, as well as European countries' boundary. I have been looking 
online for free European maps like the one I can find on US Census for 
N. America. But it seems like google doesn't hit anything useful. I 
wonder if some Rusers from Europe might know where I could find free EU 
map with each country's boundary.

Just a few quick questions:

About the best or appropriate projection for Europe, I am thinking to 
use lambert conformal conic or lambert azimuthal equal area. Are these 
good for Europe? My colleague uses the latter lambert for N. America 
mapping.

About plotting a map boundary, if I do not rely on mapproj and shapefile 
library, simply using plot() or xyplot() gave me a disatrerous map, 
where points are not sequentially connected at all.. I believe I would 
have to add some kinds of flags to the boundary dataset.

Could anyone kindly give me advice on these problems although I have 
never changed map projections in R, but I will look into mapproj library 
as a start?

Thanks in advance.

taka