[R-sig-Geo] A new ASTER Global DEM data set

[Karl Ove Hufthammer]

On Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:16:35 +0100 Paul Hiemstra <p.hiemstra at geo.uu.nl> 
wrote:
> > The maps with shading look quite nice. Is there an R package/function
> > which can create similar images?
> >   
> A good place to look for these kinds of graphs and how to make them is 
> the R graph gallery [1]. Check out this one for example [2].

Excellent idea. I have of course used 'persp' many times, but had 
forgotten about its 'shade' option. With it, I can create very good-
looking (and useful!) 3D maps. I use it on a bathymetry (ocean depths)
dataset, and using this shading and 3D visualisation gives a whole new 
perspective (sorry). 

One alternative that I discovered is the hillshading feature of the free 
GIS software SAGA. It's even available in R using the 'RSAGA' package. 
See "http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/saga-gis/wiki/Climbing%20Mount%
20St.%20Helens" for a nice example of its output. (I didn't manage to 
get it to automatically use 'natural' colours for ocean and 
land/terrain, though.)

-- 
Karl Ove Hufthammer