# Folding Globes

> Folding Globes (https://foldingglobes.com) turns real scientific data — NASA satellite mosaics, seafloor relief, earthquake catalogs — into paper globes you print at home, then cut, fold, and glue into a hand-held sphere. 41 curated globes are free to download as print-ready PDFs (A4 or A3, no signup, no watermark), and a builder makes custom globes from $6.95. A MapScaping project.

Key facts:

- Every globe starts as a citable open dataset. Each globe page states what the data shows, which instrument or survey captured it, and links to the original source (NASA, USGS, NOAA, Smithsonian, UNESCO, Natural Earth, CIESIN, the Meteoritical Society, Peter Bird's PB2002 plate model).
- 41 curated globes are free: planets and moons of the solar system, Earth from space, and data globes. Download the PDF, print on ordinary paper, cut, fold, glue. Folding takes roughly twenty minutes.
- Custom globes: pick any of ten fold shapes, choose a map style or start from a curated theme, pin up to 20 of your own places, highlight countries, pick custom colors, and place a scannable QR code on the printed sheet. $6.95 for the first globe, $2 each extra, capped at $24.95 for a pack of 10. One-off Stripe purchase — no subscription, no account. Output is a 300 dpi print-quality PDF, yours forever.
- Ten fold shapes: Tetrahedron, Cube, Octahedron, Dodecahedron, Icosahedron, Rhombic Dodecahedron, Airocean, Soccer Ball, Cahill–Keyes M, Folding Sphere — from a ten-minute cube to Buckminster Fuller's Airocean layout and near-spherical globe gores.
- Instead of one heavily distorted flat map, each face of a folding globe gets its own tiny map projection centered on that face, so distortion stays too small to notice. Folding one is a hands-on lesson in why flat maps lie.

## Use cases

- Business promotion and conference swag: order a pack of custom globes with your brand colors, highlighted markets, office locations pinned, and a QR code that links to your site or campaign — a desk object people keep, at giveaway prices (10 globes for $24.95).
- Teaching geography and earth science: free classroom sets covering plate tectonics (fold the earthquake and tectonic-plate globes and the Ring of Fire draws itself), climate (rainfall, temperature, biomes), oceanography, and astronomy. Each globe page explains what to look for on the folded globe.
- Teaching map projections and spatial thinking: the how-it-works page and the ten fold shapes make projection distortion tangible; folding builds spatial reasoning and fine motor skills.
- Data visualization you can hold: population density, city lights at night, a century of earthquakes, every UNESCO World Heritage site — datasets as physical objects.
- Gifts and crafts: personalized globes with pinned places (trips taken, hometowns, "where we met") for travelers, teachers, and map lovers.

## Pages

- [Globe builder](https://foldingglobes.com/): design a custom globe — shape, map style, pins, highlights, colors, QR code
- [Globe gallery](https://foldingglobes.com/globes): all curated globes, free to download
- [How it works](https://foldingglobes.com/how-it-works): why paper globes beat flat maps, and how to print, cut, fold, and glue
- [Paper globe shapes](https://foldingglobes.com/shapes): the ten fold patterns compared, from easiest to most spherical
- [Pricing](https://foldingglobes.com/pricing): free curated globes; custom globes from $6.95
- [Physical globes](https://foldingglobes.com/physical): die-cut, no-glue paper globes shipped flat worldwide — packs of 3 ($36) and 5 ($60), a first run of 50 packs
- [Physical globes for business](https://foldingglobes.com/physical/business): branded runs (your QR code, logo or custom map on every globe) from 50 globes, quoted per order
- [About](https://foldingglobes.com/about): who makes this (MapScaping)

## Curated globes

### Solar System

- [The Sun](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/sun): Fold your own star — the Sun's full surface from NASA's SDO and STEREO spacecraft, active regions and all. Imagery: NASA SDO + STEREO (SVS).
- [The Moon](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/moon): The Moon as mapped by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter — every crater, sea, and ray system at your fingertips, foldable in about twenty minutes. Imagery: NASA LRO / SVS CGI Moon Kit.
- [Mars](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/mars): The red planet from the Viking orbiter global color mosaic — Olympus Mons, Valles Marineris, and both polar caps on one sheet of paper. Imagery: NASA/USGS Viking MDIM 2.1.
- [Mercury](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/mercury): The innermost planet, mapped edge to edge by the MESSENGER mission. Imagery: NASA/JHUAPL/CIW MESSENGER.
- [Venus](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/venus): Venus without its clouds: the Magellan radar map of a volcanic world hotter than an oven. Imagery: NASA/JPL Magellan.
- [Jupiter](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/jupiter): Jupiter's cloud bands and the Great Red Spot, from Cassini's flyby mosaic — a gas giant you can hold. Imagery: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute, Cassini.
- [Io](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/io): Jupiter's volcano moon — the most geologically active body in the solar system, sulfur-yellow and strange. Imagery: NASA/USGS Galileo–Voyager mosaic.
- [Europa](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/europa): A cracked ice shell over a hidden ocean — Europa is many scientists' best bet for life beyond Earth. Imagery: NASA/USGS Galileo–Voyager mosaic.
- [Saturn](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/saturn): The ringed planet's golden cloud bands, mapped from Cassini and Voyager imagery — sorry, the rings don't fold. Imagery: NASA/JPL/SSI Cassini + Voyager 2; map by Björn Jónsson (CC BY 3.0).
- [Titan](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/titan): Saturn's haze-wrapped moon, seen through the murk by Cassini — the only moon with rivers, lakes, and rain. Imagery: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute, Cassini ISS.
- [Pluto](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/pluto): One hemisphere razor-sharp from New Horizons' 2015 flyby, the other forever fuzzy — a map that wears its own story. Imagery: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI New Horizons.
- [Ceres](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/ceres): The largest object in the asteroid belt, mapped by the Dawn spacecraft, bright mystery spots included. Imagery: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA Dawn.

### Earth from Space

- [Earth at Night](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/earth-at-night): NASA's Black Marble: city lights tracing coastlines, rivers, and a century of settlement — the human planet, after dark. Imagery: NASA Earth Observatory Black Marble.
- [Blue Marble](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/blue-marble): The classic cloud-free Earth — NASA's Blue Marble Next Generation, folded back into a sphere. Imagery: NASA Earth Observatory Blue Marble.
- [Noon in January](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/noon-in-january): One instant, whole planet: noon over the Prime Meridian in January — Antarctica in round-the-clock sun while the Americas sleep under city lights. Imagery: NASA Earth Observatory — Blue Marble (day), Black Marble (night).
- [Noon in July](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/noon-in-july): The same noon, six months on — the midnight sun has swapped poles, the snow line has retreated, and Asia's lights glow on the dark half. Imagery: NASA Earth Observatory — Blue Marble (day), Black Marble (night).
- [Living Green Earth](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/vegetation): Where the planet grows: satellite-measured vegetation greenness, from rainforest to desert to tundra. Data: NASA Earth Observations (MODIS NDVI).
- [Ocean Temperature](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/sea-surface-temperature): The ocean's warm currents and cold upwellings, painted by satellite thermometers. Data: NASA Earth Observations (MODIS SST).
- [Carbon Dioxide](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/co2): A globe of the air itself: satellite-mapped carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. Data: NASA AIRS / Earth Observations. (Paid.)
- [Ocean Life](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/ocean-life): Chlorophyll blooms show where the ocean is most alive — the invisible pastures that feed the sea. Data: NASA Earth Observations (chlorophyll).
- [Earth Without Water](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/earth-without-water): Not a drained future — this is what's really under the oceans: ridges, trenches, and drowned coastlines, from NOAA's relief model. Data: NOAA NCEI GLOBE Global Relief.
- [Earth Relief](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/etopo-relief): The physical planet: mountains, trenches, ridges and shelves, shaded from NOAA's global relief model. Data: NOAA NCEI ETOPO1 Global Relief. (Paid.)
- [The Ocean Floor](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/ocean-floor): The 71% of Earth nobody sees, in the ocean-mapping community's own cartography — GEBCO's chart of the entire seabed. Data: GEBCO Compilation Group — The GEBCO Grid. (Paid.)
- [Snow & Ice](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/snow-and-ice): How much of the planet is frozen — satellite-mapped snow cover and sea ice, the white edge of the world on one sheet. Data: NASA Earth Observations (MODIS snow cover).
- [Clouds](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/clouds): Earth's cloudiness, averaged from a month of satellite passes — the planet's weather engine on one sheet. Data: NASA Earth Observations (MODIS cloud fraction).
- [Rainfall](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/rainfall): Monthly rainfall measured from orbit — the tropics drink, the deserts wait. Data: NASA Earth Observations (GPM IMERG).
- [Land Temperature](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/land-temperature): How hot the ground itself gets — deserts scorch while high plateaus stay frozen in full sun. Data: NASA Earth Observations (MODIS land surface temperature).
- [Land Temperature at Night](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/land-temperature-night): The ground after dark — deserts that scorched at noon plunge toward freezing, while the tropics barely cool at all. Data: NASA Earth Observations (MODIS land surface temperature).
- [Active Fires](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/active-fires): One month of fire on one globe — Africa's great savanna burning season, boreal wildfires, and harvest burning, all aglow at once. Data: NASA Earth Observations (MODIS active fire detections).
- [Biomes of the World](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/biomes): What grows where — the planet's living regions, painted by climate. Data: NASA Earth Observations (MODIS land cover).
- [Population Density](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/population-density): Most of humanity lives on a sliver of the land — the Ganges valley and eastern China blaze while whole continents sit nearly empty. Data: CIESIN/SEDAC GPW v4 (CC BY 4.0).
- [Saharan Dust & Aerosols](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/aerosols): Rivers of dust and haze in the air — the Sahara feeds the Amazon across an ocean. Data: NASA Earth Observations (MODIS aerosol optical depth).

### Deep Time

- [Pangaea](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/pangaea): Earth 250 million years ago: one supercontinent, one world ocean — fold the planet the dinosaurs' ancestors walked. Data: PALEOMAP PaleoDEMs — Scotese and Wright 2018 (CC BY 4.0).
- [Triassic](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/triassic): Earth 220 million years ago: the first dinosaurs walk a Pangaea that is just beginning to crack. Data: PALEOMAP PaleoDEMs — Scotese and Wright 2018 (CC BY 4.0).
- [Jurassic](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/jurassic): Earth 150 million years ago: Pangaea torn in two, a young Atlantic between — the world of Stegosaurus and the giant sauropods. Data: PALEOMAP PaleoDEMs — Scotese and Wright 2018 (CC BY 4.0).
- [Cretaceous](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/cretaceous): Earth 90 million years ago: continents adrift, seas at record highs — T. rex's ancestors live on a world half-drowned. Data: PALEOMAP PaleoDEMs — Scotese and Wright 2018 (CC BY 4.0).
- [Paleogene](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/paleogene): Earth 45 million years ago: after the dinosaurs, almost our world — but India is still an island racing toward Asia. Data: PALEOMAP PaleoDEMs — Scotese and Wright 2018 (CC BY 4.0).
- [Earth Today](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/earth-today): The world as it is right now — the last frame of the continental-drift series, and just another passing moment in deep time. Data: PALEOMAP PaleoDEMs — Scotese and Wright 2018 (CC BY 4.0).

### Data Globes

- [A Century of Great Earthquakes](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/earthquakes): Every magnitude-7+ earthquake since 1950 — the Ring of Fire draws itself. Data: USGS Earthquake Catalog.
- [Volcanoes of the World](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/volcanoes): Every volcano known to have erupted in the last 12,000 years — together they trace the seams of the planet. Data: Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program.
- [Meteorite Landings](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/meteorites): The heaviest space rocks ever recovered, sized by mass — deserts and ice sheets don't attract meteorites, they preserve them. Data: NASA / Meteoritical Society.
- [World Heritage](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/world-heritage): Every UNESCO World Heritage site on one globe — the places humanity has agreed to keep. Data: UNESCO World Heritage Centre.
- [Tectonic Plates](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/tectonic-plates): Every plate boundary on Earth, colored by what the plates are doing — colliding, splitting, or grinding past each other. Data: Peter Bird (2003), GeoJSON by Hugo Ahlenius, Nordpil.
- [Time Zones](https://foldingglobes.com/globes/timezones): Time zone boundaries: in theory straight lines every 15 degrees, in practice pure politics — find China's one enormous zone. Data: Natural Earth.