Basemap: Toolkit in Python for plotting data on maps

I found a cool package in Python for plotting data on maps. It's called Basemap, a toolkit under Matplotlib. The example gallery shows off some of its capabilities for meteorology/climatology data and the images you see on the small screen on the back of the seat in front of you on an airplane.

As another example, I plotted the location of the 15 most populous cities in the United States and made the size of the solid circle proportional to the population. Interestingly, more than half of the 15 most populous cities are in California and Texas. The output:

The code is below. I put the data (population, latitude, longitude) for each of the cities in a dictionary. Using some basemap commands, I plotted a map of the US. The scatter object then plots each city on the map with a red, solid circle whose size is proportional to the population of the city.


import pylab as plt
from mpl_toolkits.basemap import Basemap
plt.close('all')

# Data of city location (logitude,latitude) and population
pop={'New York':8244910,
'Los Angeles':3819702,
'Chicago':2707120,
'Houston':2145146,
'Philadelphia':1536471,
'Pheonix':1469471,
'San Antonio':1359758,
'San Diego':1326179,
'Dallas':1223229,
'San Jose':967487,
'Jacksonville':827908,
'Indianapolis':827908,
'Austin':820611,
'San Francisco':812826,
'Columbus':797434} # dictionary of the populations of each city

lat={'New York':40.6643,
'Los Angeles':34.0194,
'Chicago':41.8376,
'Houston':29.7805,
'Philadelphia':40.0094,
'Pheonix':33.5722,
'San Antonio':29.4724,
'San Diego':32.8153,
'Dallas':32.7942,
'San Jose':37.2969,
'Jacksonville':30.3370,
'Indianapolis':39.7767,
'Austin':30.3072,
'San Francisco':37.7750,
'Columbus':39.9848} # dictionary of the latitudes of each city

lon={'New York':73.9385,
'Los Angeles':118.4108,
'Chicago':87.6818,
'Houston':95.3863,
'Philadelphia':75.1333,
'Pheonix':112.0880,
'San Antonio':98.5251,
'San Diego':117.1350,
'Dallas':96.7655,
'San Jose':121.8193,
'Jacksonville':81.6613,
'Indianapolis':86.1459,
'Austin':97.7560,
'San Francisco':122.4183,
'Columbus':82.9850} # dictionary of the longitudes of each city

m = Basemap(llcrnrlon=-119,llcrnrlat=22,urcrnrlon=-64,urcrnrlat=49,
projection='lcc',lat_1=33,lat_2=45,lon_0=-95,resolution='c')
m.drawcoastlines()
m.drawstates()
m.drawcountries()
max_size=80
for city in lon.keys():
        x, y = m(-lon[city],lat[city])
        m.scatter(x,y,max_size*pop[city]/pop['New York'],marker='o',color='r')
plt.show()