Mapping Toolbox

North Arrows

The north arrow element provides the orientation of a map by pointing to the geographic north pole. You can use the northarrow function to display a symbol indicating the direction due north on the current map. The north arrow symbol can be repositioned by clicking and dragging its icon. Alternate clicking on the icon creates an input dialog box that can be also to change the location of the north arrow.

As an illustration, create a map of the South Pole and add a north arrow symbol at a specified geographic position.

• figure; worldmap('south pole')
  northarrow('latitude',-57,'longitude',134);
  

Next, create a map of Texas and add the north arrow in the lower left of the map.

• figure; usamap('texas')
  northarrow('latitude',25,'longitude',-105,'linewidth',1.5);
  

Change the 'FaceColor' and 'EdgeColor' properties of the north arrow.

• h = handlem('NorthArrow');
  set(h,'FaceColor',[1.000 0.8431 0.0000],'EdgeColor',[0.0100 
  0.0100 0.9000])
  

Graphic Scale

Choropleth Maps