[mapserver-users] Convert Decimal Degrees to Meters

[Dreesmann, Michael]

If you want to canculate a distance on earth (unit degrees) into meters,
there are two ways.
An easy one (not so exact)

  distance [m] = 6378137.0 [m] * Pi * distance [degree] / 180.0

  6378137.0 means the earth radius

To get an exact value you must transform each coordinate from maybe GRS80
(geographical system) into maybe UTM (metre based coordinate system). This
is what the projection of the mapserver did. The formula could be found in
the PROJ4 source.

If you want to know more about coordinate systems take a look to
http://www.epsg.com. The European Petroleum Surveying Group has more than
1700 definitions of world wide used coordinate systems.

Michael

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Landesvermessungsamt Brandenburg
the state mapping agency of Brandenburg



-----Ursprungliche Nachricht-----
Von: DebasishS at riskinc.com [mailto:DebasishS at riskinc.com]
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 21. November 2001 06:31
Betreff: [mapserver-users] Convert Decimal Degrees to Meters



Hi,

I am trying to convert Decimal Degrees to Linear Units say Meters . Can
anybody provide me a formula to go about it.

thanks
Debasish Sahu.
Senior Software Engineer
RMS India.