Planetocopia Map Thread

Working on a koppen climate map for this, thoughts? I made it in gimp using a partially transparent overlay of an altitude map generated with the Map Designer Raster posted by finnosam. I think I may be over-estimating the impact of mountains and rain shadows, but I tried to make it as accurate as possible. Even took my best guess at alternate elevations from glacial depression/rebound.

Not sure how much the ice-cap is really going to extend. Scandinavia reminds me of Greenland, and so I will probably free up the Baltic and keep a diminished cap seperate from the main cap over Europe. For Central Asia I am still unsure how much rain the enlarged Caspian will produce, so it may be dryer than I have it here. For North America I agree that it will be pretty dry, but how far the monsoon will actually stretch through Texas is up in the air. Same goes for Africa, I may have kneecapped the monsoon there.

I couldn't post the actual file because its a 4320 x 2160 PNG, so these are snips. If anyone wants me to send a zip of the project folder for their own version, just let me know.
View attachment 811431

ITCZ map, my understanding is that it is pulled poleward by mid-latitude land in the respective hemisphere's summer, and stays close to the equator otherwise. It also seems to snap abruptly instead of gradually based on the maps I have seen of the OTL ITCZ.
View attachment 811442
What's that red band through?

And what app did you use for this?
A
 
Last edited:
What's that red band through?

And what app did you use for this?
A
The red band on the bottom image represents my estimated position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone in each hemisphere's summer.

I made it in Gimp, using a transparent overlay of an elevation map as a guide, and drew on a black silhouette. I generated both the elevation map and the silhouette with the Map Designer Raster posted by finnosam.
image.jpg
 
The red band on the bottom image represents my estimated position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone in each hemisphere's summer.

I made it in Gimp, using a transparent overlay of an elevation map as a guide, and drew on a black silhouette. I generated both the elevation map and the silhouette with the Map Designer Raster posted by finnosam.
View attachment 821180
How do you approximate the Intertropical Convergence Zone, I have never had a good time doing that.
 
How do you approximate the Intertropical Convergence Zone, I have never had a good time doing that.
Its a real eyeball, but I use this rule of thumb:

By default it will remain near the equator throughout the year, only shifting ~5-10 degrees north and south. This will be the case over large oceans.
Any presence of land from about 10-35 degrees from the equator will 'pull' it away from the equator in that hemisphere's summer as the land heats up and creates a zone of persistant high pressure that draws in the moist air from the more stable oceans.
Reference:
1680049455965.png

The land roughly between the lines is where you get tropical monsoon climates, but the pressure centers formed from heating land that you find over Mongolia and Arizona will exert monsoon forces that can pull in storms even further away from the ocean. More land = stronger monsoon, hence why the asian monsoon is so strong, and the North American Monsoon is weaker and more unpredictable. The cyclones forming along the line will also be brought further up eastern coasts due to prevailing winds carrying them that way, which results in temperate monsoon climates like you find in Eastern Asia, as well as what brings summer hurricanes to the Carribean and Eastern US. The position is also only an average, and can vary from year to year.
Monsoons will not work for western coasts if there is a significant cold current moving along it a la the Desert coast of Peru or Baja California.
 
Its a real eyeball, but I use this rule of thumb:

By default it will remain near the equator throughout the year, only shifting ~5-10 degrees north and south. This will be the case over large oceans.
Any presence of land from about 10-35 degrees from the equator will 'pull' it away from the equator in that hemisphere's summer as the land heats up and creates a zone of persistant high pressure that draws in the moist air from the more stable oceans.
Reference:

The land roughly between the lines is where you get tropical monsoon climates, but the pressure centers formed from heating land that you find over Mongolia and Arizona will exert monsoon forces that can pull in storms even further away from the ocean. More land = stronger monsoon, hence why the asian monsoon is so strong, and the North American Monsoon is weaker and more unpredictable. The cyclones forming along the line will also be brought further up eastern coasts due to prevailing winds carrying them that way, which results in temperate monsoon climates like you find in Eastern Asia, as well as what brings summer hurricanes to the Carribean and Eastern US. The position is also only an average, and can vary from year to year.
Monsoons will not work for western coasts if there is a significant cold current moving along it a la the Desert coast of Peru or Baja California.
I'll add that I've heard that highland areas (like Tibet and the American Great Basin) also enhance the monsoon effect.
 
With help from the owner of the WorldBuildingPasta blog and the 2018 study together, this is the most accurate Retrograde climate map so far, which more or less functions for a more “realistic” version of Turnovia. Otl below for comparison. This map assumes 300ppm co2, approximately preindustrial.

retro_interp.png


It’s quite amusing how simultaneously familiar and alien it is compared to our own world. Now designing biomes should be considerably easier and more precise than before, though i think its too late to retcon the human side of things. Some ecosystems are much rarer than our timeline, others much more common.

I’m planning on doing a future update focussing on the biology of a particular ecosystem, but am in the process of choosing which one to go for, as there’s several options to cover as you can see.
 
Last edited:
With help from the owner of the WorldBuildingPasta blog and the 2018 study together, this is the most accurate Retrograde climate map so far, which more or less functions for a more “realistic” version of Turnovia. Otl below for comparison. This map assumes 300ppm co2, approximately preindustrial.

retro_interp.png


Found a more refined version of the retrograde climate map on Reddit. Don't remember the name anymore, just "[deleted]".



YtUJZwe.png
 
Assume the North American Great Lakes at half their size and several Lakes that don't even exist iOTL across the Sahara and Australia...
 
Found a more refined version of the retrograde climate map on Reddit. Don't remember the name anymore, just "[deleted]".



YtUJZwe.png
Yes, the one by Molotovsnowman, I remember that one.

The problem is that it was based mainly off educated guesses he made, whereas this one is based directly off the data from the study running through climate simulation software, taking into account seasonal changes of both temperature (day and night included) and precipitation, albeit more detailed than that used in the original study, better factoring in habitats.

Mind you, the map is assuming roughly 300ppm co2, or preindustrial conditions. Apparently there’s a bonus set of data calculating what the climate would be like at 1200ppm, or a hothouse climate. I may upload that sometime just out of curiosity.
Assume the North American Great Lakes at half their size and several Lakes that don't even exist iOTL across the Sahara and Australia...
Indeed, as the ice cap in North America’s east coast wouldn’t have done as far south in the Pleistocene as in otl due to warmer and drier conditions, the lakes wouldn’t be as developed. And as you said, the reverse is true for Sahara and west Australia. Heck, even existing bodies of water like the Caspian and Aral would be larger not only due to more rainfall, but meltwater from the now snow-capped mountains of Iran and Afghanistan.

Which areas of the mainland this map do you think may be the most interesting to cover for fauna? I’ve covered a few island biomes in before in more limited detail, but I’d like to do a mainland ecosystem for the next update or two. Anything that particularly stands out to any of you guys?
 
One thing that jumps out to me about Turnovia is the much higher amount of Purple, especially the darkest purple which makes up the lower St. Lawrence iTTL. Can someone please describe what sort of climate Dsc is? I went to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subarctic_climate) and didn't really understand the explanations) (and I'm sort of surprised you don't have it on the West Coasts at the equivalent latitudes of our world
 
One thing that jumps out to me about Turnovia is the much higher amount of Purple, especially the darkest purple which makes up the lower St. Lawrence iTTL. Can someone please describe what sort of climate Dsc is? I went to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subarctic_climate) and didn't really understand the explanations) (and I'm sort of surprised you don't have it on the West Coasts at the equivalent latitudes of our world
Yeah it’s interesting how Dsx is far more common ittl than otl. Ds overall means a continental climate with dry summers and wet, cold winters. Dsa as shown in the key is a hot dry summer and cold wet winter, Dsb is warm dry summer and cold wet winter, Dsc short warm summer and cold wet winter, and Dsd is short warm summer and very cold wet winter. Most continental climates in otl are wet year round, or in the case of northern China and Korea, are wet in summer and dry in winter.

I’m currently trying to figure out which habitat I’d like to do a biology themed update on. Which do people think might be the most interesting regions to cover? I’ve got a list of a few on the topic, but other suggestions are welcome of course.
 
With help from the owner of the WorldBuildingPasta blog and the 2018 study together, this is the most accurate Retrograde climate map so far, which more or less functions for a more “realistic” version of Turnovia. Otl below for comparison. This map assumes 300ppm co2, approximately preindustrial.

retro_interp.png

1280px-K%C3%B6ppen-Geiger_Climate_Classification_Map_%282071%E2%80%932100%29_no_borders.png

It’s quite amusing how simultaneously familiar and alien it is compared to our own world. Now designing biomes should be considerably easier and more precise than before, though i think its too late to retcon the human side of things. Some ecosystems are much rarer than our timeline, others much more common.

I’m planning on doing a future update focussing on the biology of a particular ecosystem, but am in the process of choosing which one to go for, as there’s several options to cover as you can see.
Hey wait a minute, hold on one second there, where did you get the "OTL" map from? It does not particularly resemble the wikipedia köppen map. This first stood out to me because the dark teal colour, which in the map below corresponds approximately to that biome called "taiga", has in my mind always been associated with the "taiga", and it perplexed me why it was hardly anwhere to be found in the "OTL" map. Are you sure it wasn't from a climate change projection?

Köppen-Geiger_Climate_Classification_Map.png
 
Actually, yes you’re right I made an error there. I accidentally got one from a 2100 projection. The map you have there is accurate for otl, albeit modern not preindustrial.
Hey wait a minute, hold on one second there, where did you get the "OTL" map from? It does not particularly resemble the wikipedia köppen map. This first stood out to me because the dark teal colour, which in the map below corresponds approximately to that biome called "taiga", has in my mind always been associated with the "taiga", anwhy it was hardly anwhere to be found in the "OTL" map. Are you sure it wasn't from a climate change projection?

Köppen-Geiger_Climate_Classification_Map.png
W
 
Last edited:
One thing that jumps out to me about Turnovia is the much higher amount of Purple, especially the darkest purple which makes up the lower St. Lawrence iTTL. Can someone please describe what sort of climate Dsc is? I went to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subarctic_climate) and didn't really understand the explanations) (and I'm sort of surprised you don't have it on the West Coasts at the equivalent latitudes of our world
I still don't see why these maps show that much Ds, the coastal areas at those latitudes are really more likely to be Cfb or Dfb at least. Would be interested in how it was justified, continental climates need average day/night winter temperatures below -3C, and I doubt that will be the case on windward coasts at that latitude. It would also be really strange for the northern jet-stream to be moving as much as that implies. OTL Dsx climates really only appear in mountainous areas between 30 and 50 degrees N/S, and I see no reason why that should change for Retrograde. Dsx climates would actually still be more common, as the Mongolian plateau would likely host a pretty vast arc of this climate. It would basically resemble a larger version of the Palouse of Eastern Washington.

I made a brief edit:
A few other interesting things I noticed:

- Great Lakes region is probably most similar to the Black Sea region, Appalachia is like the Balkans transitioning to the Zagros further south.
- Central Asia will probably need a little work, the topography is reminding me of North America, so maybe the plains area resembles the American prairie in shape. Bulging out from the mountains.
- The study had winds in the Pacific much weaker than OTL, but I'm still really skeptical that it would not at least have a monsoon drawing in seasonal rainfall, if a modest level of year-round precipitation from easterly winds.
- The Mongolian Plateau is something like a larger and flatter Great Basin, could be very agriculturally productive in the northern areas.
- I extended the Mediterranean climate over the rest of Korea and southern Japan, the study showed these areas as being drier, but desert is unlikely considering the topography and prevailing winds, I think its more a resolution issue. Winter westerly winds may also bring rain to Shandong, and certainly release the rest of their rain when they hit the Mongolian Plateau and Tibet.
- Britain might be milder than shown, but it seems to be in a similar situation as the OTL Alaskan Peninsula, exposed to harsh polar easterlies. For similar reasons I have Northern Quebec still very cold compared to OTL Norway. The study seems to corroborate that the Spanish current is much weaker than even the OTL Oyashio current, much less the Gulf Stream.
 
Last edited:
How high of a sea level do I need to raise to the extent that land makes up 4.5% of Earth's surface, like Lyr?
I know you would need to add water to the planet. I think at max ice melt that there is still at least half of the current land above sea level including most of North America west of the Mississippi.
 
Top