TetraVision Earth

Barry A. Klinger, 10 June 2026
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Here are the four 15-inch posters of the Earth that are on the wall behind my desk.

And here is the high-resolution file I used to make them. If anyone likes them, feel free to download and print. I printed them on foam-board so that they stay rigid.

High Resolution, 4 Pages, TetraEarth

I call it "TetraVision Earth" because the four views of the globe can be thought of as views from the four points of a tetrahedron. Each view is an Orthographic Projection, which is the view of a sphere seen from a great distance (technically, an infinite distance). This is what the Earth would look like from outer space, if you could see topography contours.

It's The Blue Marble with quantitative information.

Greens show land elevations, blues show sea floor depths, and the pink contours show elevations of the sea surface itself. The sea surface has very subtle hills and valleys with height differences of around one meter. Because of the rotation of the Earth, these tiny elevation differences are associated with ocean currents. The currents flow along the contours; flow speeds are faster where the contours are closer together. The patterns show the presence of the great gyres which fill the ocean basins.

Last modified: 10 June 2026