plot_globe: Plot hexagonized globe

Description

Renders a global hexagonal grid on an orthographic projection with customizable rotation, land clipping, and styling options.

Usage

plot_globe(
  area = 50000,
  center = "europe",
  clip_to_land = FALSE,
  land_data = NULL,
  exclude_antarctica = TRUE,
  fill = "#D4B896",
  border = "grey30",
  border_width = 0.2,
  ocean_fill = "white",
  ocean_border = "grey50",
  show_land = clip_to_land,
  land_fill = NA,
  land_border = "grey40",
  land_width = 0.3,
  use_ggplot = NULL,
  return_data = FALSE,
  aperture = 3L
)

Value

If use_ggplot = TRUE: ggplot2 object (can add layers with +) If use_ggplot = FALSE: NULL invisibly (plots directly) If return_data = TRUE: list of sf objects (hexagons, land, ocean_circle, crs)

Arguments

area: Cell area in km^2 (passed to hex_grid)
center: Globe center: either a preset name (e.g., "europe") or numeric vector c(lon, lat). See globe_centers for presets.
clip_to_land: If TRUE, clip hexagons to land boundaries
land_data: Optional sf object for land boundaries. If NULL and clip_to_land is TRUE, uses rnaturalearth::ne_countries()
exclude_antarctica: If TRUE, exclude Antarctica from land clipping
fill: Fill color for hexagons (default "#D4B896")
border: Border color for hexagons (default "grey30")
border_width: Border width for hexagons (default 0.2)
ocean_fill: Fill color for ocean/globe background (default "white")
ocean_border: Border color for globe circle (default "grey50")
show_land: If TRUE, show land boundaries (default TRUE when clipping)
land_fill: Fill color for land (default NA, transparent)
land_border: Border color for land boundaries (default "grey40")
land_width: Border width for land boundaries (default 0.3)
use_ggplot: NULL = auto-detect, TRUE = force ggplot2, FALSE = force base
return_data: If TRUE, return sf objects instead of plotting
aperture: Grid aperture (default 3L)

Details

The function handles several technical challenges:

Hexagons on the back side of the globe fail to transform - these are filtered out gracefully
Invalid geometries after projection are repaired with st_buffer(0)
Clipping is done in orthographic CRS to avoid topology errors

Examples

Run this code

# Get data for custom plotting (fast, no rendering)
data <- plot_globe(area = 100000, center = "europe", return_data = TRUE)
nrow(data$hexagons)
class(data$ocean_circle)

# \donttest{
# Basic usage - Europe-centered globe
plot_globe(area = 80000, center = "europe")
# }