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Given the coordinates of the two points (Φ 1, L 1) and (Φ 2, L 2), the inverse problem finds the azimuths α 1, α 2 and the ellipsoidal distance s. Calculate U 1, U 2 and L, and set initial value of λ = L. Then iteratively evaluate the following equations until λ converges:
Geographical distance or geodetic distance is the distance measured along the surface of the Earth, or the shortest arch length. The formulae in this article calculate distances between points which are defined by geographical coordinates in terms of latitude and longitude. This distance is an element in solving the second (inverse) geodetic ...
A diagram illustrating great-circle distance (drawn in red) between two points on a sphere, P and Q. Two antipodal points, u and v are also shown. The great-circle distance, orthodromic distance, or spherical distance is the distance between two points on a sphere, measured along the great-circle arc between them. This arc is the shortest path ...
d is the distance between the two points along a great circle of the sphere (see spherical distance), r is the radius of the sphere. The haversine formula allows the haversine of θ to be computed directly from the latitude (represented by φ) and longitude (represented by λ) of the two points:
Accordingly, the direction at A of B, expressed as a bearing, is not in general the opposite of the direction at B of A (when traveling on the great circle formed by A and B); see inverse geodetic problem. For example, assume A and B in the northern hemisphere have the same latitude, and at A the direction to B is east-northeast. Then going ...
On an ellipsoid of revolution, for short meridian arcs, their length can be approximated using the Earth's meridional radius of curvature and the circular arc formulation. For longer arcs, the length follows from the subtraction of two meridian distances, the distance from the equator to a point at a latitude φ.
A Cartesian coordinate system is defined in terms of several oriented reference lines, called coordinate axes; any arbitrary direction can be represented numerically by finding the direction cosines (a list of cosines of the angles) between the given direction and the directions of the axes; the direction cosines are the coordinates of the ...
[14] The speed and course of the target could be computed using the distance the target traveled over an interval of time. During the latter part of World War II, the speed of the target could be measured using radar data. Radar provided accurate bearing rate, range, and radial speed, which was converted to target course and speed.