GIS
December 28, 2017

Degrees, Minutes, Seconds

The primary unit in which longitude and latitude are given is degrees (°). There are 360° of longitude (180° E ↔ 180° W) and 180° of latitude (90° N ↔ 90° S). Each degree can be broken into 60 minutes (’). Each minute can be divided into 60 seconds (”). For finer accuracy, fractions of seconds given by a decimal point are used. A base-sixty notation is called a sexagesimal notation.

$$1° = 60’ = 3600”$$

For example, a spot of ground in upstate New York can be designated by 43°2’27” N, 77°14’30.60” W. Sometimes instead of using minutes and seconds to measure the fraction of a degree, a decimal value is used. With such a convention the coordinates above are 43.040833° N, 77.241833° W. The first number was converted by taking the minutes divided by 60 and the seconds divided by 3600 and adding them together. That is: $43.040833° = 43° + 2’ × (1°/60’) + 27” × (1°/3600”)$.

How to know if a point is inside a circle?

The distance between $(x_c,y_c)$ and $(x_p,y_p)$ is given by the Pythagorean theorem as

$$ d=\sqrt{(x_p - x_c)^2 + (y_p - y_c)^2} \lt r $$

The point $(x_p,y_p)$ is inside the circle if $d<r$, on the circle if $d=r$, and outside the circle if $d>r$. You can save yourself a little work by comparing $d^2$ with $r^2$ instead: the point is inside the circle if $d^2<r^2$ , on the circle if $d^2=r^2$, and outside the circle if $d^2>r^2$. Thus, you want to compare the number $(x_p-x_c)^2+(y_p-y_c)^2$ with $r^2$.

JPA Criteria API implementation using Spherical Law of Cosines is as below:

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Expression<Double> earthRadiusKilometers = cb.literal(6371.0);

Expression<Double> LAT1 = pointofinterest.get(PointofinterestEntity_.latitudeRadian);
Expression<Double> LON1 = pointofinterest.get(PointofinterestEntity_.longitudeRadian);
Expression<Double> SIN_LAT1 = cb.function("SIN", Double.class, LAT1);
Expression<Double> COS_LAT1 = cb.function("COS", Double.class, LAT1);

Expression<Double> LAT2 = cb.literal(rfp.getPointofinterest().getLatitudeRadian());
Expression<Double> LON2 = cb.literal(rfp.getPointofinterest().getLongitudeRadian());
Expression<Double> SIN_LAT2 = cb.function("SIN", Double.class, LAT2);
Expression<Double> COS_LAT2 = cb.function("COS", Double.class, LAT2);

Expression<Double> LON2_MINUS_LON1 = cb.diff(LON2, LON1);
Expression<Double> COS_LON2_MINUS_LON1 = cb.function("COS", Double.class, LON2_MINUS_LON1);

Expression<Double> SIN_LAT1_PROD_SIN_LAT2 = cb.prod(SIN_LAT1, SIN_LAT2);
Expression<Double> COS_LAT1_PROD_COS_LAT2 = cb.prod(COS_LAT1, COS_LAT2);
Expression<Double> COS_LAT1_PROD_COS_LAT2_PROD_COS_LON2_MINUS_LON1 = cb.prod(COS_LAT1_PROD_COS_LAT2, COS_LON2_MINUS_LON1);
Expression<Double> SIN_LAT1_PROD_SIN_LAT2_SUM_COS_LAT1_PROD_COS_LAT2_PROD_COS_LON2_MINUS_LON1 = cb.sum(SIN_LAT1_PROD_SIN_LAT2, COS_LAT1_PROD_COS_LAT2_PROD_COS_LON2_MINUS_LON1);
Expression<Double> ACOS_SIN_LAT1_PROD_SIN_LAT2_SUM_COS_LAT1_PROD_COS_LAT2_PROD_COS_LON2_MINUS_LON1 = cb.function("ACOS", Double.class, SIN_LAT1_PROD_SIN_LAT2_SUM_COS_LAT1_PROD_COS_LAT2_PROD_COS_LON2_MINUS_LON1);
Expression<Double> d = cb.prod(ACOS_SIN_LAT1_PROD_SIN_LAT2_SUM_COS_LAT1_PROD_COS_LAT2_PROD_COS_LON2_MINUS_LON1, earthRadiusKilometers);

Predicate predicate = cb.equal(root.get(UserEntity_.userGroup), UserGroup.Sellers);

How to convert radians to degrees

Pi radians are equal to 180 degrees:

$$ π rad = 180 degree $$

The angle α in degrees is equal to the angle α in radians times 180 degrees divided by pi constant:

$$ α(degrees) = α(radians) × 180° / π $$

Calculate distance

Calculate distance, bearing and more between Latitude/Longitude points

Haversine Formula

This uses the ‘haversine’ formula to calculate the great-circle distance between two points – that is, the shortest distance over the earth’s surface – giving an ‘as-the-crow-flies’ distance between the points (ignoring any hills they fly over, of course!).

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a = sin²(Δφ/2) + cos φ1 ⋅ cos φ2 ⋅ sin²(Δλ/2)
c = 2 ⋅ atan2( √a, √(1−a) )
d = R ⋅ c

where φ is latitude, λ is longitude, R is earth’s radius (mean radius = 6,371km);
note that angles need to be in radians to pass to trig functions!

Spherical Law of Cosines

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d = acos( sin φ1 ⋅ sin φ2 + cos φ1 ⋅ cos φ2 ⋅ cos Δλ ) ⋅ R

# Excel calculation in radians
=ACOS( SIN(lat1)*SIN(lat2) + COS(lat1)*COS(lat2)*COS(lon2-lon1) ) * 6371000

# Excel calculation in degrees
=ACOS( SIN(lat1*PI()/180)*SIN(lat2*PI()/180) + COS(lat1*PI()/180)*COS(lat2*PI()/180)*COS(lon2*PI()/180-lon1*PI()/180) ) * 6371000

Java calculation of the geographic midpoint for two or more points on the earth’s surface

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/**
 * Calculation of the geographic midpoint (also known as the geographic center,
 * or center of gravity) for two or more points on the earth's surface Ref:
 * http://www.geomidpoint.com/calculation.html
 *
 * @param points
 * @return
 */
public static Point2D.Double midpoint(List<Point2D.Double> points) {
    double Totweight = 0;
    double xt = 0;
    double yt = 0;
    double zt = 0;
    for (Point2D.Double point : points) {
        Double latitude = point.x;
        Double longitude = point.y;

        /**
         * Convert Lat and Lon from degrees to radians.
         */
        double latn = latitude * Math.PI / 180;
        double lonn = longitude * Math.PI / 180;

        /**
         * Convert lat/lon to Cartesian coordinates
         */
        double xn = Math.cos(latn) * Math.cos(lonn);
        double yn = Math.cos(latn) * Math.sin(lonn);
        double zn = Math.sin(latn);

        /**
         * Compute weight (by time) If locations are to be weighted equally,
         * set wn to 1
         */
        double years = 0;
        double months = 0;
        double days = 0;
        double wn = true ? 1 : (years * 365.25) + (months * 30.4375) + days;

        /**
         * Compute combined total weight for all locations.
         */
        Totweight = Totweight + wn;
        xt += xn * wn;
        yt += yn * wn;
        zt += zn * wn;
    }

    /**
     * Compute weighted average x, y and z coordinates.
     */
    double x = xt / Totweight;
    double y = yt / Totweight;
    double z = zt / Totweight;

    /**
     * If abs(x) < 10-9 and abs(y) < 10-9 and abs(z) < 10-9 then the
     * geographic midpoint is the center of the earth.
     */
    double lat = -0.001944;
    double lon = -78.455833;
    if (Math.abs(x) < Math.pow(10, -9) && Math.abs(y) < Math.pow(10, -9) && Math.abs(z) < Math.pow(10, -9)) {
    } else {

        /**
         * Convert average x, y, z coordinate to latitude and longitude.
         * Note that in Excel and possibly some other applications, the
         * parameters need to be reversed in the atan2 function, for
         * example, use atan2(X,Y) instead of atan2(Y,X).
         */
        lon = Math.atan2(y, x);
        double hyp = Math.sqrt(x * x + y * y);
        lat = Math.atan2(z, hyp);

        /**
         * Convert lat and lon to degrees.
         */
        lat = lat * 180 / Math.PI;
        lon = lon * 180 / Math.PI;
    }
    LOG.log(Level.INFO, "MidPoint: {0}, {1}", new Object[]{lat, lon});
    return new Point2D.Double(lat, lon);
}