[postgis-users] Can GEOGRAPHY object cross the date-line

[Paul Ramsey]

OK, this looks like a bug...

The area of 1 versus the area of 359 is expected, since the geometry
object does not handle the dateline. However, the geography area
should be identical in both cases. So, I have a bit of work to do.

More information as I find it.

P.

On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 10:38 AM, Dale Noss <noss at asu.edu> wrote:
>
> I'm confused about whether the new Geography type correctly handles shapes
> that cross the date-line. The documentation in
> http://postgis.refractions.net/documentation/manual-1.5/ch04.html#id2802139
> reads:
>
> "What about the date-line and the poles?
>
> All the calculations have no conception of date-line or poles, the
> coordinates are spherical (longitude/latitude) so a shape that crosses the
> dateline is, from a calculation point of view, no different from any other
> shape."
>
> Section 4.2.3.3.        reads:
>
> "What is the longest arc you can process?
>
> We use great circle arcs as the "interpolation line" between two points.
> That means any two points are actually joined up two ways, depending on
> which direction you travel along the great circle. All our code assumes that
> the points are joined by the *shorter* of the two paths along the great
> circle. As a consequence, shapes that have arcs of more than 180 degrees
> will not be correctly modelled."
>
> The st_distance() function returns a sensible result for points that lie on
> either side of the
> date-line.
>
> g4wd=# select st_distance('POINT(179.5 1)'::geography, 'POINT(-179.5
> 1)'::geography)/1000;
>     ?column?
> ------------------
>  111.302645148245
> (1 row)
>
> The st_area() function also returns a sensible result for a square degree
> near the equator.
>
> g4wd=# select st_area(g)/1000000, st_area(transform(geometry(g), 4326)),
> astext(geometry(g)) from (select 'POLYGON((178.5 2, 178.5 1, 179.5 1, 179.5
> 2, 178.5 2))'::geography) as foo(g);
>    ?column?     | st_area |                       astext
> -----------------+---------+----------------------------------------------------
>  12304.814950073 |       1 | POLYGON((178.5 2,178.5 1,179.5 1,179.5 2,178.5
> 2))
> (1 row)
>
> If the GEOGRAPHY object crosses the date-line, I see results similar to what
> I'd get using a POLYGON. In other words, the calculations cannot be choosing
> the shorter of the two possible paths along a great circle. (See query
> results below) 359 implies choosing the longer path, and I have no idea why
> the area in square kilometers is roughly 4.5x instead of 359x larger than
> the non-dateline case above.
>
> g4wd=# select st_area(g)/1000000, st_area(transform(geometry(g), 4326)),
> astext(geometry(g)) from (select 'POLYGON((179.5 2, 179.5 1, -179.5 1,
> -179.5 2, 179.5 2))'::geography) as foo(g);
>     ?column?     | st_area |                        astext
> ------------------+---------+------------------------------------------------------
>  55910.8880691158 |     359 | POLYGON((179.5 2,179.5 1,-179.5 1,-179.5
> 2,179.5 2))
> (1 row)
>
> /////////////////////////////////
> My setup:
> g4wd=# select postgis_full_version();
> postgis_full_version
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  POSTGIS="2.0.0SVN" GEOS="3.2.0-CAPI-1.6.0" PROJ="Rel. 4.7.1, 23 September
> 2009" LIBXML="2.6.16" USE_STATS
> (1 row)
>
> g4wd=# select version();
>                                                                  version
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  PostgreSQL 8.4.2 on powerpc-apple-darwin9.8.0, compiled by GCC
> powerpc-apple-darwin9-gcc-4.0.1 (GCC) 4.0.1 (Apple Inc. build 5490), 32-bit
> (1 row)
>
> Running OS X 10.5.8
>
> Work arounds, clarifications, links to solutions will be much appreciated.
>
> --
> View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/Can-GEOGRAPHY-object-cross-the-date-line-tp27714275p27714275.html
> Sent from the PostGIS - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
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