Latitude - WikiHQ

thumb|Earth model with circles of latitude in black and indications of the [[North Pole, Equator, and the northern and southern hemispheres.]]

thumb|upright=0.9|right|Earth's [[Graticule (cartography)|graticule. The vertical lines from pole to pole are lines of constant longitude, or meridians. The circles parallel to the equator are lines of constant latitude, or parallels. The graticule shows the latitude and longitude of points on the surface. In this example meridians are spaced at 6° intervals and parallels at 4° intervals.]]

In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pole, with 0° at the Equator. Lines of constant latitude, or parallels, run east-west as circles parallel to the equator. Latitude and longitude are used together as a coordinate pair to specify a location on the surface of the Earth.

On its own, the term latitude normally refers to the geodetic latitude as defined below. Briefly, the geodetic latitude of a point is the angle formed between the vector perpendicular (or normal) to the ellipsoidal surface from the point, and the plane of the equator.

Background

Two levels of abstraction are employed in the definitions of latitude and longitude. In the first step the physical surface is modeled by the geoid, a surface which approximates the mean sea level over the oceans and its continuation under the land masses. The second step is to approximate the geoid by a mathematically simpler reference surface. The simplest choice for the reference surface is a sphere, but the geoid is more accurately modeled by an ellipsoid of revolution. The definitions of latitude and longitude on such reference surfaces are detailed in the following sections. Lines of constant latitude and longitude together constitute a graticule on the reference surface. The latitude of a point on the actual surface is that of the corresponding point on the reference surface, the correspondence being along the normal to the reference surface, which passes through the point on the physical surface. Latitude and longitude together with some specification of height constitute a geographic coordinate system as defined in the specification of the ISO 19111 standard.

Since there are many different reference ellipsoids, the precise latitude of a feature on the surface is not unique: this is stressed in the ISO standard which states that "without the full specification of the coordinate reference system, coordinates (that is latitude and longitude) are ambiguous at best and meaningless at worst". This is of great importance in accurate applications, such as a Global Positioning System (GPS), but in common usage, where high accuracy is not required, the reference ellipsoid is not usually stated.

In English texts, the latitude angle, defined below, is usually denoted by the Greek lower-case letter phi ( or ). It is measured in degrees, minutes and seconds, or decimal degrees, north or south of the equator. For navigational purposes positions are given in degrees and decimal minutes. For example, The Needles lighthouse is at 50°39.734′ N 001°35.500′ W.

This article relates to coordinate systems for the Earth: it may be adapted to cover the Moon, planets and other celestial objects (planetographic latitude).

For a brief history, see History of latitude.

Determination

In celestial navigation, latitude is determined with the meridian altitude method.

More precise measurement of latitude requires an understanding of the gravitational field of the Earth, either to set up theodolites or to determine GPS satellite orbits. The study of the figure of the Earth together with its gravitational field is the science of geodesy.

Latitude on the sphere

thumb|upright=0.9|right|A perspective view of the Earth showing how latitude (<math>\phi</math>) and longitude (<math>\lambda</math>) are defined on a spherical model. The graticule spacing is 10 degrees.

The graticule on the sphere

The graticule is formed by the lines of constant latitude and constant longitude, which are constructed with reference to the rotation axis of the Earth. The primary reference points are the poles where the axis of rotation of the Earth intersects the reference surface. Planes which contain the rotation axis intersect the surface at the meridians; and the angle between any one meridian plane and that through the Prime Meridian defines the longitude: meridians are lines of constant longitude. The plane through the centre of the Earth and perpendicular to the rotation axis intersects the surface at a great circle called the Equator. Planes parallel to the equatorial plane intersect the surface in circles of constant latitude; these are the parallels. The Equator has a latitude of 0°, the North Pole has a latitude of 90° North (written 90° N or +90°), and the South Pole has a latitude of 90° South (written 90° S or −90°). The latitude of an arbitrary point is the angle between the equatorial plane and the normal to the surface at that point: the normal to the surface of the sphere is along the radial vector.

The latitude, as defined in this way for the sphere, is often termed the spherical latitude, to avoid ambiguity with the geodetic latitude and the auxiliary latitudes defined in subsequent sections of this article.

Named latitudes on the Earth

thumb|upright=1.35|right|The orientation of the Earth at the December solstice

Besides the equator, four other parallels are of significance:

:{| class="wikitable"

| Arctic Circle || 66° 34′ (66.57°) N

| Tropic of Cancer ||23° 26′ (23.43°) N

| Tropic of Capricorn || 23° 26′ (23.43°) S

| Antarctic Circle || 66° 34′ (66.57°) S

The plane of the Earth's orbit about the Sun is called the ecliptic, and the plane perpendicular to the rotation axis of the Earth is the equatorial plane. The angle between the ecliptic and the equatorial plane is called variously the axial tilt, the obliquity, or the inclination of the ecliptic, and it is conventionally denoted by . The latitude of the tropical circles is equal to and the latitude of the polar circles is its complement (90° - i). The axis of rotation varies slowly over time and the values given here are those for the current epoch. The time variation is discussed more fully in the article on axial tilt.

The figure shows the geometry of a cross-section of the plane perpendicular to the ecliptic and through the centres of the Earth and the Sun at the December solstice when the Sun is overhead at some point of the Tropic of Capricorn. The south polar latitudes below the Antarctic Circle are in daylight, whilst the north polar latitudes above the Arctic Circle are in night. The situation is reversed at the June solstice, when the Sun is overhead at the Tropic of Cancer. Only at latitudes in between the two tropics is it possible for the Sun to be directly overhead (at the zenith).

On map projections there is no universal rule as to how meridians and parallels should appear. The examples below show the named parallels (as red lines) on the commonly used Mercator projection and the Transverse Mercator projection. On the former the parallels are horizontal and the meridians are vertical, whereas on the latter there is no exact relationship of parallels and meridians with horizontal and vertical: both are complicated curves.

{| style="text-align:left" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"

|-valign=top

! width="1%" |

! width="36%"|Normal Mercator

! width="3%"|

! width="36%" |Transverse Mercator

! width="1%" |

|-valign=top

| align="center" width="200px" | center|200px

Latitude on the ellipsoid

Ellipsoids

In 1687 Isaac Newton published the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, in which he proved that a rotating self-gravitating fluid body in equilibrium takes the form of an oblate ellipsoid. (This article uses the term ellipsoid in preference to the older term spheroid.) Newton's result was confirmed by geodetic measurements in the 18th century. (See Meridian arc.) An oblate ellipsoid is the three-dimensional surface generated by the rotation of an ellipse about its shorter axis (minor axis). "Oblate ellipsoid of revolution" is abbreviated to 'ellipsoid' in the remainder of this article. (Ellipsoids which do not have an axis of symmetry are termed triaxial.)

Many different reference ellipsoids have been used in the history of geodesy. In pre-satellite days they were devised to give a good fit to the geoid over the limited area of a survey but, with the advent of GPS, it has become natural to use reference ellipsoids (such as WGS84) with centre at the centre of mass of the Earth and minor axis aligned to the rotation axis of the Earth. These geocentric ellipsoids are usually within of the geoid. Since latitude is defined with respect to an ellipsoid, the position of a given point is different on each ellipsoid: one cannot exactly specify the latitude and longitude of a geographical feature without specifying the ellipsoid used. Many maps maintained by national agencies are based on older ellipsoids, so one must know how the latitude and longitude values are transformed from one ellipsoid to another. GPS handsets include software to carry out datum transformations which link WGS84 to the local reference ellipsoid with its associated grid.

The geometry of the ellipsoid

thumb|A sphere of radius a compressed along the z axis to form an oblate ellipsoid of revolution.

The shape of an ellipsoid of revolution is determined by the shape of the ellipse which is rotated about its minor (shorter) axis. Two parameters are required. One is invariably the equatorial radius, which is the semi-major axis, . The other parameter is usually (1) the polar radius or semi-minor axis, ; or (2) the (first) flattening, ; or (3) the eccentricity, . These parameters are not independent: they are related by

:<math>f=\frac{a-b}{a}, \qquad e^2=2f-f^2,\qquad b=a(1-f)=a\sqrt{1-e^2}\,.</math>

Many other parameters (see ellipse, ellipsoid) appear in the study of geodesy, geophysics and map projections but they can all be expressed in terms of one or two members of the set , , and . Both and are small and often appear in series expansions in calculations; they are of the order and 0.0818 respectively. Values for a number of ellipsoids are given in Figure of the Earth. Reference ellipsoids are usually defined by the semi-major axis and the inverse flattening, . For example, the defining values for the WGS84 ellipsoid, used by all GPS devices, are

(equatorial radius): exactly
(inverse flattening): exactly

from which are derived

(polar radius):
(eccentricity squared):

The difference between the semi-major and semi-minor axes is about and as fraction of the semi-major axis it equals the flattening; on a computer monitor the ellipsoid could be sized as 300 by 299 pixels. This would barely be distinguishable from a 300-by-300-pixel sphere, so illustrations usually exaggerate the flattening.

Geodetic and geocentric latitudes

thumb|upright=0.9|right|The definition of geodetic latitude (<math>\phi</math>) and longitude (<math>\lambda</math>) on an ellipsoid. The normal to the surface does not pass through the centre, except at the equator and at the poles.

The graticule on the ellipsoid is constructed in exactly the same way as on the sphere. The normal at a point on the surface of an ellipsoid does not pass through the centre, except for points on the equator or at the poles, but the definition of latitude remains unchanged as the angle between the normal and the equatorial plane. The terminology for latitude must be made more precise by distinguishing:

Geodetic latitude: the angle between the normal and the equatorial plane. The standard notation in English publications is . This is the definition assumed when the word latitude is used without qualification. The definition must be accompanied with a specification of the ellipsoid.
Geocentric latitude (also known as spherical latitude, after the 3D polar angle): the angle between the radius (from centre to the point on the surface) and the equatorial plane. (Figure below). There is no standard notation: examples from various texts include , , , , , . This article uses .

Geographic latitude must be used with care, as some authors use it as a synonym for geodetic latitude whilst others use it as an alternative to the astronomical latitude.

"Latitude" (unqualified) should normally refer to the geodetic latitude.

The importance of specifying the reference datum may be illustrated by a simple example. On the reference ellipsoid for WGS84, the centre of the Eiffel Tower has a geodetic latitude of 48° 51′ 29″ N, or 48.8583° N and longitude of 2° 17′ 40″ E or 2.2944°E. The same coordinates on the datum ED50 define a point on the ground which is distant from the tower. A web search may produce several different values for the latitude of the tower; the reference ellipsoid is rarely specified.

Meridian distance

The length of a degree of latitude depends on the figure of the Earth assumed.

Meridian distance on the sphere

On the sphere the normal passes through the centre and the latitude () is

therefore equal to the angle subtended at the centre by the meridian arc from the equator to the point concerned. If the meridian distance is denoted by then

<math display="block"> m(\phi)=\frac{\pi}{180^\circ}R\phi_\mathrm{degrees} = R\phi_\mathrm{radians}</math>

where denotes the mean radius of the Earth. is equal to . No higher accuracy is appropriate for since higher-precision results necessitate an ellipsoid model. With this value for the meridian length of 1 degree of latitude on the sphere is (60.0 nautical miles). The length of one minute of latitude is (1.00 nautical miles), while the length of 1 second of latitude is (see nautical mile).

Meridian distance on the ellipsoid

In Meridian arc and standard texts

<math display="block">\delta m(\phi) = M(\phi)\, \delta\phi = a\left(1 - e^2\right) \left(1 - e^2 \sin^2\phi\right)^{-\frac{3}{2\, \delta\phi</math>

{|class="wikitable" style="margin:1em auto 1em auto;float:right;clear:right;"

!<math>\phi</math>||||

|- style="text-align:right;"

| 0° || 110.574 km || 111.320 km

|- style="text-align:right;"

| 15° || 110.649 km || 107.550 km

|- style="text-align:right;"

| 30° || 110.852 km || 96.486 km

|- style="text-align:right;"

| 45° || 111.132 km || 78.847 km

|- style="text-align:right;"

| 60° || 111.412 km || 55.800 km

|- style="text-align:right;"

| 75° || 111.618 km || 28.902 km

|- style="text-align:right;"

| 90° || 111.694 km || 0.000 km

When the latitude difference is 1 degree, corresponding to radians, the arc distance is about

<math display="block">\Delta^1_\text{lat} = \frac{\pi a\left(1 - e^2\right)}{180^\circ\left(1 - e^2 \sin^2\phi\right)^\frac{3}{2</math>

The distance in metres (correct to 0.01 metre) between latitudes <math>\phi</math> − 0.5 degrees and <math>\phi</math> + 0.5 degrees on the WGS84 spheroid is

<math display="block">\Delta^1_\text{lat} = 111\,132.954 - 559.822\cos 2\phi + 1.175\cos 4\phi</math>

The variation of this distance with latitude (on WGS84) is shown in the table along with the length of a degree of longitude (east-west distance):

<math display="block">\Delta^1_\text{long} = \frac{\pi a\cos\phi}{180^\circ\sqrt{1 - e^2 \sin^2\phi\,</math>

<!--

The more recent but little used IERS 2003 ellipsoid provides equatorial and polar semi-axes of and and an inverse flattening of . Lengths of degrees on the WGS84 and IERS 2003 ellipsoids are the same when rounded to six significant digits.

-->

A calculator for any latitude is provided by the U.S. Government's National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).

Auxiliary latitudes

There are six auxiliary latitudes that have applications to special problems in geodesy, geophysics and the theory of map projections:

Geocentric latitude
Parametric (or reduced) latitude
Rectifying latitude
Authalic latitude
Conformal latitude
Isometric latitude

The definitions given in this section all relate to locations on the reference ellipsoid but the first two auxiliary latitudes, like the geodetic latitude, can be extended to define a three-dimensional geographic coordinate system as discussed below. The remaining latitudes are not used in this way; they are used only as intermediate constructs in map projections of the reference ellipsoid to the plane or in calculations of geodesics on the ellipsoid. Their numerical values are not of interest. For example, no one would need to calculate the authalic latitude of the Eiffel Tower.

The expressions below give the auxiliary latitudes in terms of the geodetic latitude, the semi-major axis, , and the eccentricity, . (For inverses see below.) The forms given are, apart from notational variants, those in the standard reference for map projections, namely "Map projections: a working manual" by J. P. Snyder. Derivations of these expressions may be found in Adams and online publications by Osborne and Bessel who solved problems for geodesics on the ellipsoid by transforming them to an equivalent problem for spherical geodesics by using this smaller latitude. Bessel's notation, , is also used in the current literature. The parametric latitude is related to the geodetic latitude by:

The parametric latitude is not used in the theory of map projections. Its most important application is in the theory of ellipsoid geodesics, (Vincenty, Karney).

Rectifying latitude

The rectifying latitude, , is the meridian distance scaled so that its value at the poles is equal to 90 degrees or radians:

:<math>\mu(\phi) = \frac{\pi}{2}\frac{m(\phi)}{m_\mathrm{p</math>

where the meridian distance from the equator to a latitude is (see Meridian arc)

:<math>m(\phi) = a\left(1 - e^2\right)\int_0^\phi \left(1 - e^2 \sin^2 \phi'\right)^{-\frac{3}{2\, d\phi'\,,</math>

and the length of the meridian quadrant from the equator to the pole (the polar distance) is

:<math>m_\mathrm{p} = m\left(\frac{\pi}{2}\right)\,.</math>

Using the rectifying latitude to define a latitude on a sphere of radius

:<math>R = \frac{2m_\mathrm{p{\pi}</math>

defines a projection from the ellipsoid to the sphere such that all meridians have true length and uniform scale. The sphere may then be projected to the plane with an equirectangular projection to give a double projection from the ellipsoid to the plane such that all meridians have true length and uniform meridian scale. An example of the use of the rectifying latitude is the equidistant conic projection. (Snyder, Section 16).

:<math>\begin{align}

\chi(\phi) &= 2\tan^{-1}\left[

\left(\frac{1 + \sin\phi}{1 - \sin\phi}\right)

\left(\frac{1 - e\sin\phi}{1 + e\sin\phi}\right)^e\right

]^\frac{1}{2} - \frac{\pi}{2} \\[2pt]

&= 2\tan^{-1}\left[

\tan\left(\frac{\phi}{2} + \frac{\pi}{4}\right)

\left(\frac{1 - e\sin\phi}{1 + e\sin\phi}\right)^\frac{e}{2}

\right] - \frac{\pi}{2} \\[2pt]

&= \tan^{-1}\left[\sinh\left(\sinh^{-1}(\tan\phi) - e\tanh^{-1}(e\sin\phi)\right)\right] \\

&= \operatorname{gd}\left[\operatorname{gd}^{-1}(\phi) - e\tanh^{-1}(e\sin\phi)\right]

\end{align}</math>

where is the Gudermannian function. (See also Mercator projection.)

The conformal latitude defines a transformation from the ellipsoid to a sphere of arbitrary radius such that the angle of intersection between any two lines on the ellipsoid is the same as the corresponding angle on the sphere (so that the shape of small elements is well preserved). A further conformal transformation from the sphere to the plane gives a conformal double projection from the ellipsoid to the plane. This is not the only way of generating such a conformal projection. For example, the 'exact' version of the Transverse Mercator projection on the ellipsoid is not a double projection. (It does, however, involve a generalisation of the conformal latitude to the complex plane).

Isometric latitude

The isometric latitude, , is used in the development of the ellipsoidal versions of the normal Mercator projection and the Transverse Mercator projection. The name "isometric" arises from the fact that at any point on the ellipsoid equal increments of and longitude give rise to equal distance displacements along the meridians and parallels respectively. The graticule defined by the lines of constant and constant , divides the surface of the ellipsoid into a mesh of squares (of varying size). The isometric latitude is zero at the equator but rapidly diverges from the geodetic latitude, tending to infinity at the poles. The conventional notation is given in Snyder (page 15):

The other, more useful, approach is to express the auxiliary latitude as a series in terms of the geodetic latitude and then invert the series by the method of Lagrange reversion. Such series are presented by Adams who uses Taylor series expansions and gives coefficients in terms of the eccentricity. gives series for the conversions between all pairs of auxiliary latitudes in terms of the third flattening, . Karney establishes that the truncation errors for such series are consistently smaller that the equivalent series in terms of the eccentricity. The series method is not applicable to the isometric latitude and one must find the conformal latitude in an intermediate step. or simply ellipsoidal coordinates

Astronomical latitude is not to be confused with declination, the coordinate astronomers use in a similar way to specify the angular position of stars north-south of the celestial equator (see equatorial coordinates), nor with ecliptic latitude, the coordinate that astronomers use to specify the angular position of stars north-south of the ecliptic (see ecliptic coordinates).

References

Footnotes

Citations

External links

GEONets Names Server. . access to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's (NGA) database of foreign geographic feature names.
Resources for determining your latitude and longitude
Convert decimal degrees into degrees, minutes, seconds. – info about decimal to sexagesimal conversion.
Convert decimal degrees into degrees, minutes, seconds
Distance calculation based on latitude and longitude – JavaScript version
16th Century Latitude Survey
Determination of Latitude by Francis Drake on the Coast of California in 1579