Submarine Cable Map Dataviz

submarine_cable_map.R

library(geojsonsf)
library(sf)
library(rayrender)

#Data source: https://github.com/telegeography/www.submarinecablemap.com
cables = geojson_sf("cable-geo.json")

cablescene = list()
counter = 1
for(i in 1:length(cables$geometry)) {
  for(j in 1:length(cables$geometry[[i]])) {
    temp = cables$geometry[[i]][[j]]
    cableval = data.frame(x=sinpi(temp[,1]/180)*cospi(temp[,2]/180),
                          y=sinpi(temp[,2]/180),
                          z=cospi(temp[,1]/180)*cospi(temp[,2]/180))
    #Don't lower start of line at the 180/0 longitude border
    if(abs(temp[1,1] - 180) > 0.001 && abs(temp[1,1] + 180) > 0.001) {
      cableval[1,] = cableval[1,] * 1/1.02
    }
    nr = nrow(temp)
    #Don't lower end of line at the 180/0 longitude border
    if(abs(temp[nr,1] - 180) > 0.001 && abs(temp[nr,1] + 180) > 0.001) {
      nr = nrow(cableval)
      cableval[nr,] = cableval[nr,] * 1/1.02
    } 
  cablescene[[counter]] = path(cableval, width = 0.005,material=diffuse(color=cables$color[i]))
  counter = counter + 1
  }
}
fullcablescene = do.call(rbind,cablescene)

for(i in seq(1,720,by=1)) {
  group_objects(fullcablescene,scale=c(1,1,1)*1.02) %>% 
    add_object(sphere(radius=0.99,material=diffuse(image_texture = "2k_earth_daymap.jpg"),angle=c(0,-90,0))) %>% 
    group_objects(angle=c(0,-i/2,0)) %>% 
    add_object(sphere(y=5,z=5,x=5,material=light(intensity = 80,color="lightblue"))) %>% 
    add_object(sphere(y=5,z=5,x=-5,material=light(intensity = 10,color="orange"))) %>% 
    add_object(sphere(y=-10,material=light(intensity = 3,color="white"))) %>%
    render_scene(samples=64,width=1200,height=1200,fov=0,aperture=0, ortho_dimensions = c(2.3,2.3),
                 sample_method = "sobol_blue",filename=sprintf("smallcables%d.png",i))
}

I have consolidated and modified a little there :

https://github.com/bunam/submarine_cable_map

Some pointers for beginners to R:

• You'll need three R packages: "geojsonsf", "sf", and "rayrender"
• "sf" expects some libraries to be installed on your system, see its readme on how to do this, for example for Linux
• You'll need a Fortran compiler. If you're on Arch Linux: pacman -S gcc-fortran
• After installing R and opening its command line, install the packages with install.packages(c("geojsonsf", "sf", "rayrender"))
• Then run the script with source("submarine_cable_map.R")

I'm offering the PNGs of the cable map via the following torrent magnet link since rendering them can take a few hours, depending on your hardware:

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:d3d832c365c5f7ec88d0bea1a4d3906a064950f9&dn=submarine_cables_map_pngs

Turn the PNGs into a video using, for example:

• ffmpeg -i smallcables%03d.png -vf scale=720:720 -crf 55 globe.webm
• ffmpeg -i smallcables%03d.png -vf scale=720:720 -pix_fmt yuv420p -crf 26 globe.mp4

Reduce the value of -crf for higher quality or set the resolution to something else, for example: scale=1024:1024