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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Great Circles and Rhumb Lines on the Complex Plane
From: Andrés Ruiz
Date: 2017 Jul 12, 16:15 +0200
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From: Andrés Ruiz
Date: 2017 Jul 12, 16:15 +0200
Just received..
Volume 70, Issue 3 May 2017, pp. 618-627
Great Circles and Rhumb Lines on the Complex Plane
Robin G. Stuart
Abstract
Mapping points on the Riemann sphere to points on the plane of complex numbers by stereographic projection has been shown to offer a number of advantages when applied to problems in navigation traditionally handled using spherical trigonometry. Here it is shown that the same approach can be used for problems involving great circles and/or rhumb lines and it results in simple, compact expressions suitable for efficient computer evaluation. Worked numerical examples are given and the values obtained are compared to standard references.