Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-9pm4c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T00:32:38.149Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Evaluation and Execution of Great Elliptic Sailing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2017

Tien-Pen Hsu  and
Tsung-Hsuan Hsieh
Tien-Pen Hsu
Affiliation:
(Department of Civil Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan)
Tsung-Hsuan Hsieh*
Affiliation:
(Department of Civil Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan)
*
E-mail: (d98521003@ntu.edu.tw)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Great Elliptic Sailing (GES), which can reduce sailing distance, is important to navigators. Whether a Great Ellipse (GE) is worth using depends on whether the distance saved is significant. Otherwise, the Rhumb Line (RL) is easier to steer. We propose a simple criterion to evaluate the difference in distance between the GE and the RL. The criterion is that the GE is worth using when the vertex lies between the departure and destination. In order to take the advantage of shorter distance, the GE is usually approximated as a series of waypoints. Unlike currently practised methods, we propose the Longitude Bisection Method (LBM) which determines waypoints with varying intervals. This approach can establish the appropriate number of waypoints to approximate the GE effectively. The proposed criterion and the LBM are demonstrated in practical examples.

Keywords

Great ellipseRhumb lineWaypointVertex
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Navigation , Volume 70 , Issue 5 , September 2017 , pp. 1023 - 1040
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bennett, G.G. (1996). Practical Rhumb Line Calculations on the Spheroid. The Journal of Navigation, 49, 112–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowditch, N. (2002). The American Practical Navigator. National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA).Google Scholar
Chen, C.L. (2016). A Systematic Approach for Solving the Great Circle Track Problems Based on Vector Algebra. Polish Maritime Research, 23, 3–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, C.L., Hsieh, T.H. and Hsu, T.P. (2015). A Novel Approach to Solve the Great Circle Track Based on Rotation Transformation. Journal of Marine Science and Technology, 23, 13–20.Google Scholar
Chen, C.L., Liu, P.F. and Gong, W.T. (2014). A Simple Approach to Great Circle Sailing: the COFI Method. The Journal of Navigation, 67, 403–418.Google Scholar
Cutler, T.J. (2004). Dutton's Nautical Navigation. Naval Institute Press.Google Scholar
Earle, M.A. (2011). Accurate Harmonic Series for Inverse and Direct Solutions for the Great Ellipse. The Journal of Navigation, 64, 557–570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hiraiwa, T. (1987). Proposal on the Modification of Sailing Calculations. The Journal of Navigation, 40, 138–148.Google Scholar
Miller, A.R., Moskowitz, I.S. and Simmen, J. (1991). Traveling on the Curved Earth. Journal of the Institute of Navigation, 38, 71–78.Google Scholar
Nastro, V. and Tancredi, U. (2010). Great Circle Navigation with Vectorial methods. The Journal of Navigation, 63, 557–563.Google Scholar
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). (2001). Nautical Publications. http://msi.nga.mil/NGAPortal/MSI.portal. Accessed 19 September 2016.Google Scholar
Pallikaris, A. and Latsas, G. (2009). New Algorithm for Great Elliptic Sailing (GES). The Journal of Navigation, 62, 493–507.Google Scholar
Royal, Navy. (2008). The Admiralty Manual of Navigation: The Principles of Navigation, Volume 1. Nautical Institute.Google Scholar
Sjöberg, L.E. (2012). Solutions to the Direct and Inverse Navigation Problems on the Great Ellipse. Journal of Geodetic Science, 2, 200–205.Google Scholar
Tseng, W.K. and Chang, W.J. (2014). Analogues between 2D Linear Equations and Great Circle Sailing. The Journal of Navigation, 67, 101–112.Google Scholar
Williams, R. (1996). The Great Ellipse on the Surface of the Spheroid. The Journal of Navigation, 49, 229–234.Google Scholar