Since the advent of film, cartogapher's have been interested in animation as a solution. Animation allows us to incorporate time into our maps in a dynamic manner to show not only where things are, but when they are and even more importantly, how they move and behave. Forecasting the behavior of a severe thunderstorm, or visually modelling the motion of ground water is facilitated by animation. Animation also takes advantage of the remarkable visual abilities of the human eye-brain system. Not only is the eye capable of detecting even very slight motion, but the use of relative motion in our displays also allows our brains to construct complex 3-dimensional scenes.
Cartographic animation is a rapidly developing area of research.
The Internet has further increased the domain of animated cartography by making it easy to distribute animated maps to users. Today, millions of people watch and interact with animated cartographic displays online. Animation can be used in a variety of ways. Many of the tools developed in scientific- and geovisualization make use of map animation. What remains unknown, however, are many of the cognitive and useablility issues involved with animated displays.