Scribd
Upload
31 views3 pages

Measuring Azimuth: Clockwise Basics

The azimuth is the angle between true north and the position of a point of interest projected onto a horizontal plane. It is commonly used in navigation to indicate direction. Azimuth can be measured clockwise from 0 degrees at true north to 360 degrees. When calculating azimuth, the Earth's curvature must be taken into account to determine either normal-section azimuth or geodetic azimuth, with the latter being the shortest path between points along the Earth's surface. Formulas allow azimuth to be precisely calculated based on latitude and longitude coordinates.

Uploaded by

Paul Shan
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
31 views3 pages

Measuring Azimuth: Clockwise Basics

The azimuth is the angle between true north and the position of a point of interest projected onto a horizontal plane. It is commonly used in navigation to indicate direction. Azimuth can be measured clockwise from 0 degrees at true north to 360 degrees. When calculating azimuth, the Earth's curvature must be taken into account to determine either normal-section azimuth or geodetic azimuth, with the latter being the shortest path between points along the Earth's surface. Formulas allow azimuth to be precisely calculated based on latitude and longitude coordinates.

Uploaded by

Paul Shan
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Azimuth

The azimuth is the angle formed between a reference direction (North) and a line from the observer to a point of interest projected on the same plane as the reference direction. Azimuth adalah suatu ukuran sudut dalam sistem koordinat sfera. Ia bermula dengan Vektor dari seorang pemerhati (origin) kepada titik sasaran yang dijangka serenjang pada satah(plane) rujukan; sudut antara vektor unjuran dan vektor rujukan pada satah rujukan dipanggil azimut. Satu contoh azimut adalah ukuran kedudukan bintang di langit. Bintang ini merupakan tempat sasaran, satah rujukan ufuk ialah horizon, dan mata vektor merujuk ialah arah utara. Azimut merupakan sudut di antara titik utara dan projeksi secara perpendicular (90oc) bintang turun ke horizon. Navigation In land navigation, azimuth is usually denoted as alpha, , and defined as a horizontal angle measured clockwise from a north base line or meridian.[3][4] Azimuth has also been more generally defined as a horizontal angle measured clockwise from any fixed reference plane or easily established base direction line.[5][6][7] Today, the reference plane for an azimuth in a general navigational context is typically true north, measured as a 0 azimuth, though other angular units (grad, mil) can also be employed. In any event, the azimuth cannot exceed the highest number of units in a circle for a 360 circle, this is 359 degrees, 59 arcminutes, 59 arcseconds (359 59' 59"). For example, moving clockwise on a 360 degree circle, a point due east would have an azimuth of 90, south 180, and west 270. However, there are exceptions: some navigation systems use geographic south as the reference plane. Any direction can potentially serve as the plane of reference, as long as it is clearly defined for everyone using that system.

True north-based azimuths From North North 0 or 360 South 180 North-Northeast 22.5 South-Southwest 202.5 Northeast 45 Southwest 225 East-Northeast 67.5 West-Southwest 247.5 East 90 West 270 East-Southeast 112.5 West-Northwest 292.5 Southeast 135 Northwest 315 South-Southeast 157.5 North-Northwest 337.5 Calculating Azimuth We are standing at latitude , longitude zero; we want to find the azimuth from our viewpoint to Point 2 at latitude , longitude L (positive eastward). We can get a fair approximation by assuming the Earth is a sphere, in which case the azimuth is given by

A better approximation assumes the Earth is a slightly-squashed sphere (a spheroid); "azimuth" then has at least two very slightly different meanings. "Normal-section azimuth" is the angle measured at our viewpoint by a theodolite whose axis is perpendicular to the surface of the spheroid; "geodetic azimuth" is the angle between north and the geodesic-that is, the shortest path on the surface of the spheroid from our viewpoint to Point 2. The difference is usually unmeasurably small; if Point 2 is not more than 100 km away the difference will not exceed 0.03 arc second. Various websites will calculate geodetic azimuthe.g. the NGS site. (That site is simpler than it looks at first glance; its default is the GRS80/WGS84 spheroid, which is what most people want.) Formulas for calculating geodetic azimuth are linked in the distance article. Normal-section azimuth is simpler to calculate; Bomford says Cunningham's formula is exact for any distance. If is the reciprocal of the flattening for the chosen spheroid (e.g. 298.257223563 for WGS84) then

If

= 0 then

You might also like