CODEWITHSUNDEEP
matlabmathgpscoordinatesgeospatial
JustCurious
JustCurious

Reputation: 1858

Project GPS coordinates to Euclidean space

There are a lot of similar questions but I can't get a clear answer out of them. So, I want to represent latitude and longitude in a 2D space such that I can calculate the distances if necessary.

I want to have a representation such that i can deal with x,y as numbers in Euclidean space and perform the standard distance formula on them without multiplying with the diameter of Earth every time I need to calculate the distance between two points.

Is there anything in Matlab that can change lat/long to x,y in Euclidean space?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1627

Answers (1)

Marcin Cuprjak
Marcin Cuprjak

Reputation: 694

I am not a matlab speciallist but the answer is not limited to matlab. Generally in GIS when you want to perform calculations in Euclidean space you have to apply 'projection' to the data. There are various types of projections, one of the most popular being Transverse Mercator

The common feature of such projections is the fact you can't precisely represent whole world with it. I mean the projection is based on chosen meridian and is precise enough up to some distance from it (e.g. Gauss Krueger projection is quite accurate around +-500km from the meridian.

You will always have to choose some kind of 'zone' or 'meridian', regardless of what projection you choose, because it is impossible to transform a sphere into plane without any deformations (be it distance, angle or area).

So if you are working on a set of data located around some geographical area you can simply transform (project) the data and treat it as normal Enclidean 2d space.

But if you think of processing data located around the whole world you will have to properly cluster and project it using proper zone.

Upvotes: 3

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