Lambert conformal conic projection

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A Lambert conformal conic projection (LCC) is a conic map projection, which is often used for aeronautical charts. In essence, the projection superimposes a cone over the sphere of the Earth, with two reference parallels secant to the globe and intersecting it. This minimizes distortion from projecting a three dimensional surface to a two-dimensional surface. Distortion is least along the standard parallels, and increases further from the chosen parallels. As the name indicates, maps using this projection are conformal.

Pilots favor these charts because a straight line drawn on a Lambert conformal conic projection approximates a great-circle route between endpoints.

[edit] External links

• Table of examples and properties of all common projections, from radicalcartography.net
• An interactive Java Applet to study the metric deformations of the Lambert Conformal Conic Projection
• Convert Lambert coordinates to Geographicals
• Convert Geographic coordinates to Lambert