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Great Circles and Rhumb Lines on the Complex Plane

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Robin G. Stuart
Robin G. Stuart*
Affiliation:
(Valhalla, New York, USA)
*
(E-mail: robinstuart@earthlink.net)
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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.

Keywords

AlgorithmNautical NavigationPath
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Navigation , Volume 70 , Issue 3 , May 2017 , pp. 618 - 627
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 2017 

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References

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