See e.g. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:South_Pole_Telescope - because mapframe uses cartesian tiles, it breaks down at the polls, and displays whitespace below and massively distorts the lowest/highest latitudes.
Description
Related Objects
- Duplicates Merged Here
- T208530: Map projection for polar area
Event Timeline
It's unlikely we'll have the resources in the foreseeable future to support multiple projections.
That's fine, but it's still a bug that needs to be fixed at some point. So I've re-opened it with a low priority for now.
I posted this in the 2019 wishlist, but withdrew it as I realised that it's not actually possible to edit the maps at the poles on OSM as they use the same projection - so this probably needs OSM to fix things first. Not sure if it's possible to mark another organisation as the blocker for this issue!
IIRC, OSM can store polar regions just fine, but it is the OSM's own rendering that causes problems. Wikipedia does not use OSM's renderer, but it is similar in structure.
Note that Vega <graph> tag can render non-mercator projections too, and it can get the data from the geoshape service - which downloads the data from the OSM. In other words, you can get the outline of antarctica and draw it. This should already be available - one would just need to design this graph using the <graph> tag.
THat's a limitation of Mapnik using bitmaps; we need other (dynamic) projections for poles and this usually requires vector format. Bitmap tiles using cyclindric projections (oriented around polar axis) are unusable above about 80 degrees, and have severe distortions about 60°.
There are other renderers using vectorized tiles which allows easier navigation.
Still, editing maps around poles is difficult with iD or even with JOSM (without using custom plugins), and many people can't use something else. Adn there are still issues for representing objects crossing the international dateline (not solved at the OSM Serverside API, requires adaptation by the client editor to make necessary adaptations).
First, according to my understanding, Wikimedia Maps doesn't use Mapnik
There were projects that used Mapnik to render arctic area by changing projection and modifying how features are rendered according to special characteristics of polar area. I am not sure whether the project still survive now, but it indicate it is noy that hard to achieve.
There are other renderers using vectorized tiles which allows easier navigation.
Still, editing maps around poles is difficult with iD or even with JOSM (without using custom plugins), and many people can't use something else. Adn there are still issues for representing objects crossing the international dateline (not solved at the OSM Serverside API, requires adaptation by the client editor to make necessary adaptations).
I think, the lack of renderer have inhibited editor software willingness to improve support for polar area rendering, and wikimedia maps as an openly available tile supporting it could help boost editors support
And nowadays editing users can edit information in the area using tools like Level 0.
I've proposed this again for this year's wishlist, at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Wishlist_Survey_2022/Miscellaneous/Improve_map_display_at_the_poles