This map is a continuous flow map of currents in the Indian Ocean, along the East Coast of Africa. It shows both the direction and magnitude of the velocity of currents, in a raster data format. The data is collected from OSCAR, from the period of January 2017. I orientated an arrow symbol in each raster box to point in the direction of flow and its size to be proportional to the magnitude of the velocity of the flow. I used a color graduated backdrop on the raster to emphasize velocity magnitude. One of the trickiest things was choosing the colors for arrows and the graduated background raster. Theoretically, I wanted shades of blue to follow the generally accepted theme of water bodies, but they had to be tones that were observably separate from each other but did not clash. The sizing of the arrows also was difficult to be well observed depending upon the scale of the view. It is also displeasing to have countries simply white, so I investigated coloring them something else, but that looked less appealing and distracted from the flow of the currents which is the topic of the map.
