Lines on Maps in Python
How to draw lines, great circles, and contours on maps in Python.
For other geographical and map charts see the maps index page.
Below we show how to create geographical line plots using either Plotly Express with px.line_geo or the lower-level go.Scattergeo.
Lines on Maps with Plotly Express¶
Plotly Express is the easy-to-use, high-level interface to Plotly, which operates on "tidy" data.
In [1]:
import plotly.express as px
df = px.data.gapminder().query("year == 2007")
fig = px.line_geo(df, locations="iso_alpha",
color="continent", # "continent" is one of the columns of gapminder
projection="orthographic")
fig.show()
In [2]:
import plotly.graph_objects as go
import pandas as pd
df_airports = pd.read_csv('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plotly/datasets/master/2011_february_us_airport_traffic.csv')
df_airports.head()
df_flight_paths = pd.read_csv('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plotly/datasets/master/2011_february_aa_flight_paths.csv')
df_flight_paths.head()
fig = go.Figure()
fig.add_trace(go.Scattergeo(
locationmode = 'USA-states',
lon = df_airports['long'],
lat = df_airports['lat'],
hoverinfo = 'text',
text = df_airports['airport'],
mode = 'markers',
marker = dict(
size = 2,
color = 'rgb(255, 0, 0)',
line = dict(
width = 3,
color = 'rgba(68, 68, 68, 0)'
)
)))
flight_paths = []
for i in range(len(df_flight_paths)):
fig.add_trace(
go.Scattergeo(
locationmode = 'USA-states',
lon = [df_flight_paths['start_lon'][i], df_flight_paths['end_lon'][i]],
lat = [df_flight_paths['start_lat'][i], df_flight_paths['end_lat'][i]],
mode = 'lines',
line = dict(width = 1,color = 'red'),
opacity = float(df_flight_paths['cnt'][i]) / float(df_flight_paths['cnt'].max()),
)
)
fig.update_layout(
title_text = 'Feb. 2011 American Airline flight paths<br>(Hover for airport names)',
showlegend = False,
geo = go.layout.Geo(
scope = 'north america',
projection_type = 'azimuthal equal area',
showland = True,
landcolor = 'rgb(243, 243, 243)',
countrycolor = 'rgb(204, 204, 204)',
),
)
fig.show()
London to NYC Great Circle¶
In [3]:
import plotly.graph_objects as go
fig = go.Figure(data=go.Scattergeo(
lat = [40.7127, 51.5072],
lon = [-74.0059, 0.1275],
mode = 'lines',
line = dict(width = 2, color = 'blue'),
))
fig.update_layout(
title_text = 'London to NYC Great Circle',
showlegend = False,
geo = dict(
resolution = 50,
showland = True,
showlakes = True,
landcolor = 'rgb(204, 204, 204)',
countrycolor = 'rgb(204, 204, 204)',
lakecolor = 'rgb(255, 255, 255)',
projection_type = "equirectangular",
coastlinewidth = 2,
lataxis = dict(
range = [20, 60],
showgrid = True,
dtick = 10
),
lonaxis = dict(
range = [-100, 20],
showgrid = True,
dtick = 20
),
)
)
fig.show()
Contour lines on globe¶
In [4]:
import plotly.graph_objects as go
import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_csv('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plotly/datasets/master/globe_contours.csv')
df.head()
scl = ['rgb(213,62,79)', 'rgb(244,109,67)', 'rgb(253,174,97)', \
'rgb(254,224,139)', 'rgb(255,255,191)', 'rgb(230,245,152)', \
'rgb(171,221,164)', 'rgb(102,194,165)', 'rgb(50,136,189)'
]
n_colors = len(scl)
fig = go.Figure()
for i, (lat, lon) in enumerate(zip(df.columns[::2], df.columns[1::2])):
fig.add_trace(go.Scattergeo(
lon = df[lon],
lat = df[lat],
mode = 'lines',
line = dict(width = 2, color = scl[i % n_colors]
)))
fig.update_layout(
title_text = 'Contour lines over globe<br>(Click and drag to rotate)',
showlegend = False,
geo = dict(
showland = True,
showcountries = True,
showocean = True,
countrywidth = 0.5,
landcolor = 'rgb(230, 145, 56)',
lakecolor = 'rgb(0, 255, 255)',
oceancolor = 'rgb(0, 255, 255)',
projection = dict(
type = 'orthographic',
rotation = dict(
lon = -100,
lat = 40,
roll = 0
)
),
lonaxis = dict(
showgrid = True,
gridcolor = 'rgb(102, 102, 102)',
gridwidth = 0.5
),
lataxis = dict(
showgrid = True,
gridcolor = 'rgb(102, 102, 102)',
gridwidth = 0.5
)
)
)
fig.show()
Reference¶
See https://plot.ly/python/reference/#scattergeo for more information and chart attribute options!

