This demonstration is based on the Chrome globe experiment that can be seen at http://www.chromeexperiments.com/globe. We will re-use the data and recreate it in ActionScript with a few changes here and there.
The end result will look like the following screenshot:
Lines represent the population at that location on the earth.
The work has been split into three recipes:
A first, fairly short, recipe that looks at showing a globe and applying a texture
A second recipe that goes into a few techniques for making the globe look more attractive
And a final recipe that will display the actual data
All images used within these recipes are the free version available on http://planetpixelemporium.com/earth.html, unless otherwise noted. We use the small size images, but if you really want to use this in a finished work, you may want to purchase the higher resolution images.