Globe

Utilities for manipulation of latitude and longitude

Checking if a Latitude or Longitude is Valid

A latitude is valid if it is a float or integer and is in the range [-90, 90]. A longitude is valid if it is a float or integer and is in the range [-180, 180]. These two methods simply return a boolean indicating whether or not the latitude or longitude meets these criteria.

lat = 45.2
globe.is_lat_valid(lat)  # Returns True

lon = -190
globe.is_lon_valid(lon)  # Returns False

Distances from a Pair of Latitude and Longitudes

The globe.distance method uses the Vincenty formula to calculate the distance between two points on Earth. Earth is assumed spherical and the distance is in meters.

distance = globe.distance(lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2)

Teleporting

The globe.teleport method returns a random latitude and longitude given some intial latitude and longitude and a typical distance (in meters). The actual distance is randomly calculated from a Gaussian distribution with a width equal to the typical distance. The angle between the initial and final points is selected randomly.

(newlat, newlon) = globe.teleport(lat, lon, 1000)

Other Utilities

The globe.latlon2sc method converts a latitude and longitude to spherical coordinates on the unit sphere:

(theta, phi) = globe.latlon2sc(0, 30)