uwacan.positional.distance_to#

distance_to(lat_1, lon_1, lat_2, lon_2)[source]#

Calculate the distance between two coordinates.

Conventions here are λ as the longitude and φ as the latitude. This implementation uses the Haversine formula:

\[\begin{split}c &= H(Δφ) + (1 - H(Δφ) - H(φ_1 + φ_2)) ⋅ H(Δλ)\\ d &= 2 R(φ) ⋅ \arcsin(\sqrt{c})\\ H(θ) &= \sin^2(θ/2)\end{split}\]

implemented internally with conversions to geocentric coordinates and a latitude-dependent earth radius.

Parameters:
lat_1float

Latitude of the first point in degrees.

lon_1float

Longitude of the first point in degrees.

lat_2float

Latitude of the second point in degrees.

lon_2float

Longitude of the second point in degrees.

Returns:
float

Distance between the two points in meters.