About July on NASA satellite images
To project the map on a sphere, we convert the Mercator projection into the equirectangular projection.
The equirectangular projection shows the entire sphere, has a convenient coordinate grid and can be easily applied to a sphere in any 3D editor.
Applying the territory map to a sphere with grid step of 1,25°.
To find all pixels of each territory on the sphere and not get them mixed up, we start by drawing cluster maps. The color of each cluster matches the color on the territory map.
Selecting clusters of a specific color on the sphere.
Looking an isometric projection of unfolded clusters.
The equirectangular projection has a nice bonus: the map can be easily compared with NASA satellite images for any season.
Choosing July as this time of year has the least of snow, most green and forests, deserts and permafrost areas are the most visible.
At the end, we have all our clusters flattened, rendered in a single scale, in July and pointing north.
To make it even more beautiful, equalizing colors, adding relief and illumination of populated areas to make navigation easier for viewers.
Putting everything together, adding flags and moving the territory size rating into a separate column on the left so as not overload the captions with numbers.
