convert latitude and longitude to x and y grid system using python

Question

I have file with latitude and longitude values, that i want to convert the x and y in km I want to measure the distance from each point.

for instance I make the first points of latitude and longitude(which are 51.58, -124.6 respectfully)

to (0,0) in my x and y system so than basically i want to find out what the other points are and their location from the origin so i want to find what 51.56(lat) -123.64(long) is in (x,y) in km and so on for the rest of the file.

I want to do this all in python, is there some sort code ?

I found sites online , for instance

http://www.whoi.edu/marine/ndsf/cgi-bin/NDSFutility.cgi?form=0&from=LatLon&to=XY

does exactly want i want to do, I just don't know how they do it.

Answer 1

The following gets you pretty close (answer in km). If you need to be better than this, you have to work harder at the math - for example by following some of the links given.

import math
dx = (lon1-lon2)*40000*math.cos((lat1+lat2)*math.pi/360)/360
dy = (lat1-lat2)*40000/360

Variable names should be pretty obvious. This gives you

dx = 66.299 km (your link gives 66.577)
dy = 2.222 km (link gives 2.225)

Once you pick coordinates (for example, lon1, lat1) as your origin, it should be easy to see how to compute all the other XY coordinates.

Note - the factor 40,000 is the circumference of the earth in km (measured across the poles). This gets you close. If you look at the source of the link you provided (you have to dig around a bit to find the javascript which is in a separate file) you find that they use a more complex equation:

function METERS_DEGLON(x)
{  
   with (Math)
   {
      var d2r=DEG_TO_RADIANS(x);
      return((111415.13 * cos(d2r))- (94.55 * cos(3.0*d2r)) + (0.12 * cos(5.0*d2r)));
   }
}

function METERS_DEGLAT(x)
{
   with (Math)
   {
      var d2r=DEG_TO_RADIANS(x);
      return(111132.09 - (566.05 * cos(2.0*d2r))+ (1.20 * cos(4.0*d2r)) - (0.002 * cos(6.0*d2r)));
   }
}

It looks to me like they are actually taking account of the fact that the earth is not exactly a sphere... but even so when you are making the assumption you can treat a bit of the earth as a plane you are going to have some errors. I'm sure with their formulas the errors are smaller...