How to plot 3D Earth in Python?
<p>I'm trying to plot a satellite orbit around the Earth. This is what I currrently have:</p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/KBIbb.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/KBIbb.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>I made this plot using the Axes3D function in mpl_toolkits.mplot3d. Ideally what I would like to do, is to replace the simple sphere with an actual Earth with topology. </p>

<p>If you're not sure what I mean, take a look at a MATLAB implementation:</p>

<p><a href="http://uk.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/13823-3d-earth-example" rel="noreferrer">http://uk.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/13823-3d-earth-example</a></p>

<p>The Basemap package could be of help (especially the bluemarble() function), but unforunately I can't make it work on 3D objects. There is a similar question <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17365364/plotting-cylindrical-map-data-over-a-3d-sphere-in-python">here</a>, but the answer to that question results in a projection of a 3D sphere on a 2D plot. I want a 3D sphere on a 3D plot, so that I'm able to rotate around it.</p>

<p>Does anybody know of another package/implementation. Or is there a way to make Basemap work with 3D objects?</p>

<p>---EDIT---</p>

<p>Somebody asked the <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30269099/creating-a-rotatable-3d-earth?lq=1">same question</a>, but nobody has answered it yet</p>