R: Convert From Geographical to Geodesic Coordinates

geodXy {oce} | R Documentation

## Convert From Geographical to Geodesic Coordinates

### Description

The method employs geodesic calculations of the distances along geodesic curves, i.e. akin to great-circle curves that go along the surface of the ellipsoidal earth; see `geodDist`. The results are minimally sensitive to the ellipsoidal geometry assumed, but this is not a matter in serious question today. Note that the results are quite unlike the values returned from a map projection; in the latter case, the results vary greatly across a range of popular projections. Use the present function for things like gridding data or calculating drifter speeds.

### Usage

    geodXy(longitude, latitude, longitudeRef = 0, latitudeRef = 0, rotate = 0)

### Arguments

`longitude` | vector of longitudes
`latitude` | vector of latitudes
`longitudeRef` | numeric, reference longitude
`latitudeRef` | numeric, reference latitude
`rotate` | numeric, counterclockwise angle, in degrees, by which to rotate the (`x`, `y`) coordinates about the reference point. This is useful in rotating the coordinate system to align with a coastline, a mean current, etc.

### Details

Consider the `i`-th point in the `longitude` and `latitude` vectors. The value of `x[i]` is inferred from the distance along a geodesic curve from from (`longitude[i]`, `latitude[i]`) to (`longitudeRef[i]`, `latitude[i]`), i.e. the distance along a line of constant latitude. Similarly, `y[i]` is inferred the geodesic distance from (`longitude[i]`, `latitude[i]`) to (`longitude[i]`, `latitudeRef`). Once the distances are inferred, signs are calculated from determining the sign of `longitude[i]-longitudeRef` for `x[i]` and similarly `y[i]`.

### Value

Data frame of `x` and `y`, geodesic distance components, measured in metres. See “Details” for the definitions.

### Change notification

Until 2015-11-02, the names of the arguments were `lon`, `lat`, `lon.ref` and `lat.ref`; these were changed to be more in keeping with names in the rest of oce.

### Caution

The calculation is devised by the author and is without known precedent in the literature, so users might have to explain it in their publications–hence the detailed discussion below.

This is possibly useful, possibly not. The method changed in Oct, 2015.

### Author(s)

Dan Kelley

### See Also

`geodDist`

Other functions relating to geodesy: `geodDist`, `geodGc`, `geodXyInverse`

### Examples

    library(oce)
    data(section)
    lon <- section[["longitude", "byStation"]]
    lat<- section[["latitude", "byStation"]]
    lon <- lon
    lat <- lat
    lonR <- lon[1]
    latR <- lat[1]
    ## 1. ellipse
    km <- 1e3 # nicer for graphs
    xy <- geodXy(lon, lat, lonR, latR) / km
    ## 2. sphere, with scale tailored to mean local latitude
    kmperdeg <- geodDist(0, mean(lat)-0.5, 0, mean(lat)+0.5) # mid-latitude estimate
    X <- (lon - lonR) * kmperdeg * cos(lat * pi / 180)
    Y <- (lat - latR) * kmperdeg
    XY <- list(x=X, y=Y)
    ## plot, with labels for sphere-ellipse deviations
    par(mfrow=c(2,1), mar=c(3, 3, 1, 1), mgp=c(2, 0.7, 0))
    plot(lon, lat, asp=1/cos(median(lat*pi/180)))
    plot(xy$x, xy$y, asp=1, xlab="x [km]", ylab="y [km]")
    rms<- function(x) sqrt(mean(x^2))
    mtext(sprintf("RMS dev.: x %.2f km, y %.2f km",
                  rms(xy$x-XY$x), rms(xy$y-XY$y)), side=3, line=-1)
    mtext(sprintf("RMS dev / span: x %.2g, y %.2g",
                  rms(xy$x-XY$x)/diff(range(xy$x)),
                  rms(xy$y-XY$y)/diff(range(xy$y))),
          side=3, line=-2)

[Package oce version 0.9-20 Index]