add an line for the coasts of the continents used for the geodensityplot in the mapping toolbox

I would like to add a coast line, an outline map of landmass on the plot for the geodensityplot in the mapping toolbox. I am using 2021b and the mapping toolbox.

basic code:

geodensityplot(dataLat,dataLong,[], 'FaceColor', 'interp');

gx = gca;

gx.Basemap = 'streets-light'; % This is the default, so not necessary

hold on

I tried using geoshow and hold on, but I cant get the entire coastline, just from 90W to 90E... For some reason the data isn't +/-180... I know that the lat and lon are reversed in geoshow below, but for some reason the coastline will only line up if I reverse them (see attached jped), just won't produce all the coast line... The attach first jpeg screenshot shows how it ends up with the lat and lon correct for geoshow and the second attached file if I reverse them...

coastline code:

load coastlines

geoshow(coastlon,coastlat,'Color','k') % Yes, this has the lon/lat reversed, but I can't get the coast line to trace the geodensity plot otherwise

[Chunru]

load coastlines
geoplot(coastlat, coastlon)
geobasemap('bluegreen')

Answer 1

[Chunru]

mapping toolbox has the convention of lat-lon coordinates rather than lon-lat. try the following in your code:

lon = linspace(-170,170,3000) + 10*rand(1,3000);
lat = 50 * cosd(3*lon) + 10*rand(size(lon));
weights = 101 + 100*(sind(2*lon));

% Create the geographic density plot, specifying the colors used with the plot.
geodensityplot(lat,lon,weights,'FaceColor','interp')

load coastlines
hold on
geoplot(coastlat, coastlon, 'b')
geobasemap('bluegreen')

[Mike Susedik]

yes, I know and I tried to explain why I had it reversed, but sorry I wasn't clear. For some reason it works better if I reverse lat/lon. If you look at the 2 figures they show what happens, if I don't reverse them it doesn't follow the coast line properly. Please see the 2 figures.

[Chunru]

See the updated above.

[Mike Susedik]

I swear to the gods of Matlab that I tried it both ways with lat/lon as the attached figures show... I ran your code and it of course worked fine. Then I ran my code and it gives me the 90 degree rotation.

I looked closer at my code and I'm using "geoshow" and you're using "geoplot". It seems geoshow is the wrong function for my application.

Why is geoshow wrong function? Key ingrediance is the word "line"?

geoshow : Display map latitude and longitude data

geoplot: Plot line in geographic coordinates

I don't know why lat/lon works one way for geoplot and the other way for geoshow? Maybe a bug?

Try this code and you'll see the problem I was getting, then swap lat/lon and see what you get:

lon = linspace(-170,170,3000) + 10*rand(1,3000);

lat = 50 * cosd(3*lon) + 10*rand(size(lon));

weights = 101 + 100*(sind(2*lon));

% Create the geographic density plot, specifying the colors used with the plot.

geodensityplot(lat,lon,weights,'FaceColor','interp')

load coastlines

hold on

geoshow(coastlat, coastlon,'Color', 'b')

geobasemap('bluegreen')

I'm using geoplot now and the computer is happy.

Thank you for the help Chunru!