Azimuthal and Polar Projections

Azimuthal projections work by mathematically projecting the globe onto a flat plane that touches the Earth at a single point, most often a pole, and their shared defining property is that they preserve true compass direction, or azimuth, from that one central point to every other point on the map, though distances and shapes still distort with increasing severity farther from the center. Because a Mercator-style cylindrical projection becomes mathematically undefined and visually useless at the poles themselves, azimuthal projections centered on the North or South Pole are the standard cartographic solution for mapping polar regions, a role reflected in the Universal Polar Stereographic grid system used for military and scientific mapping of the Arctic and Antarctic beyond the latitude limits of the Universal Transverse Mercator system.