Color Landform Atlas of the United States, Version 2

Satellite images of the state. These have been obtained here directly from the NOAA weather satellites and use the AVHRR image data. An 1895 map of each state.

These are from an old Rand McNally Atlas of the World. Not yet all available, still scanning A PostScript map of counties in the state. These are intended for download and printing on a PostScript printer.

The first two maps all have the same maximum image length (900 pixels) so the actually scale varies from state to state. Long narrow states also have more detailed subsections available. More maps will be added later.

The elevation key is intended for the topographic maps. The county maps use the same colors but with less contrast. It may be convenient to start another browser window and view the elevation key image at the same time as the map of interest.

The same data and coloring is used for the state maps as for the previous JHU/APL Digital Relief Map of the U.S. which covers the U.S. at a uniform scale in 60 GIF images. Even though the same color scheme is used as for earlier maps a new coloring algorithm is in use. The coloring for some maps is improved, for others it is not as good.

The old coloring algorithm used a median cut technique which did not handle small areas of elevation extremes well. An example problem area is Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, it was miscolored on the previous maps.

The new algorithm does a better overall job but has occasional problems along the coast.