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The intercardinal (intermediate, or, historically, ordinal [2]) directions are the four intermediate compass directions located halfway between each pair of cardinal directions. Northeast (NE), 45°, halfway between north and east, is the opposite of southwest. Southeast (SE), 135°, halfway between south and east, is the opposite of northwest.
The international standard convention —that east is positive—is consistent with a right-handed Cartesian coordinate system, with the North Pole up. A specific longitude may then be combined with a specific latitude (positive in the northern hemisphere ) to give a precise position on the Earth's surface.
Geodetic latitude and geocentric latitude have different definitions. Geodetic latitude is defined as the angle between the equatorial plane and the surface normal at a point on the ellipsoid, whereas geocentric latitude is defined as the angle between the equatorial plane and a radial line connecting the centre of the ellipsoid to a point on the surface (see figure).
A geographic coordinate system (GCS) is a spherical or geodetic coordinate system for measuring and communicating positions directly on Earth as latitude and longitude. [1] It is the simplest, oldest and most widely used type of the various spatial reference systems that are in use, and forms the basis for most others.
The east north up (ENU) local tangent plane is similar to NED, except for swapping 'down' for 'up' and x for y. Local tangent plane coordinates ( LTP ) are part of a spatial reference system based on the tangent plane defined by the local vertical direction and the Earth's axis of rotation.
Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pole, with 0° at the Equator. Lines of constant latitude, or parallels, run east–west as circles parallel to the equator. Latitude and longitude are used together as a coordinate pair to specify a location on the surface of the Earth.
The horizontal coordinate system is fixed to a location on Earth, not the stars. Therefore, the altitude and azimuth of an object in the sky changes with time, as the object appears to drift across the sky with Earth's rotation.
The Earth-centered, Earth-fixed coordinate system (acronym ECEF), also known as the geocentric coordinate system, is a cartesian spatial reference system that represents locations in the vicinity of the Earth (including its surface, interior, atmosphere, and surrounding outer space) as X, Y, and Z measurements from its center of mass.