Mercator projection

English

Etymology

From Gerardus Mercator, Latinized name of Gerard de Cremer (1512–1594), Flemish cartographer and mathematician, from Latin mercātor (“merchant”).

Noun

Mercator projection (plural Mercator projections)

1. An orthomorphic map projection, in which meridians appear at right-angles to the equator, and lines of latitude are horizontal lines whose distance from each other increases with distance from the equator.

   Synonym: Mercator

   • 2018, Julio Sanchez, Maria P. Canton, Space Image Processing, Routledge, →ISBN, page 191:

     In the Mercator projection, the line of intersection between the cylinder and the sphere is the equator, while in the Traverse Mercator this line is a meridian.

   • 2020, Gretchen N. Peterson, GIS Cartography […] , 3rd edition, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 144:

     Most digital maps are displayed in the Web Mercator projection but this is slowly changing. Web Mercator became the default standard for web mapping when the major online map services adopted it, like Google and OpenStreetMap.

Further reading

• Mercator projection on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Web Mercator projection on Wikipedia.Wikipedia