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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: The Nautical Mile?
From: Paul Hirose
Date: 2020 Oct 31, 22:07 -0700
From: Paul Hirose
Date: 2020 Oct 31, 22:07 -0700
For the radius of curvature R of the meridian at a given latitude, Special Publication No. 8 (Formulas and Tables for the Computation of Geodetic Positions, 7th ed.) of the US Coast & Geodetic Survey gives this: e2 = (a^2 - b^2) / a^2 R = a * (1 - e2) / √(1 - e2 * sin^2 φ) where a = ellipsoid major axis b = semi-major axis φ = latitude For instance, if a = 6378.137 km, b = 6356.752 km, φ = 30°, e2 = 6.694 478e-3 R = 6340.747 km -- Paul Hirose http://sofajpl.com/