Using geometry with srid 4326, what unit of measure does STDistance return?

Question

So here is my set up:

I have a table such as:

Id, Lat, Long, GeoPoint, GeomPoint

both GeoPoint (geography) and GeomPoint (geometry) are set to SRID 4326

I have the following query:

    DECLARE @radiiCollection TABLE 
      ( [ID]       INT IDENTITY(1, 1) PRIMARY KEY, 
       [Radius]   GEOMETRY, 
       [RefPoint] GEOMETRY, 
       [RefAddr]  VARCHAR(255), 
       [MinLat]   VARCHAR(255), 
       [MaxLat]   VARCHAR(255), 
       [MinLng]   VARCHAR(255), 
       [MaxLng]   VARCHAR(255)) 

    DECLARE @point GEOMETRY = geometry::Point(-111.84493459999999, 33.3902569, 4326) 
    DECLARE @gpoint GEOGRAPHY = geography::Point(33.3902569, -111.84493459999999, 4326);

    INSERT INTO @radiicollection 
                (radius, 
                 refpoint, 
                 refaddr, 
                 maxlat, 
                 maxlng, 
                 minlat, 
                 minlng) 
    VALUES      ( @point.MakeValid().STBuffer(16093.40), 
                  @point, 
                  '10 miles of 85210', 
                  33.51734689767781, 
                  -111.6923852740045, 
                  33.26298081643247, 
                  -111.99703818130439 ) 

    SELECT 
      GeomPoint, 
      GeoPoint
     INTO #temp 
    FROM ( 
      SELECT row_number() OVER ( 
          PARTITION BY [ds].[ADDR], 
          [ds].[APT], 
          [ds].[ZIP] ORDER BY [ds].[IND_ID] ASC 
          ) recid1, rGeop1.geompoint, rgeop1.GeoPoint 
      FROM [r].[main] ds 
      JOIN [r].[GeoPoint] rGeoP1 
        ON rGeoP1.[UID] = ds.[UID] 
      JOIN @radiiCollection rr 
        ON GeomPoint.STWithin(rr.radius) = 1 
      WHERE 1 = 1 
        AND ( 
          ( 
            ( 
              ( 
                try_cast(latitude AS DECIMAL(9, 1)) BETWEEN CONVERT(DECIMAL(9, 1), 33.26298081643247)
                  AND CONVERT(DECIMAL(9, 1), 33.51734689767781) 
                AND try_cast(longitude AS DECIMAL(9, 1)) BETWEEN CONVERT(DECIMAL(9, 1), - 111.99703818130439)
                  AND CONVERT(DECIMAL(9, 1), - 111.6923852740045) 
                ) 
              ) 
            ) 
          ) 
      ) f 
    WHERE recid1 = 1

So, pulling both, I then pull STDistance for both the GeoPoint and the GeomPoint like so:

select top 10 
 try_cast(GeoPoint.STDistance(@gpoint) as  float) DistanceGeo,
 try_cast(GeoMPoint.STDistance(@point.MakeValid()) as float) DistanceGeom
from #temp

but what I'm getting is a little weird:

    DistanceGeo     DistanceGeom
    -----------------------------------------
    10495.1674191715    0.111544285781801
    10249.4175883919    0.100540150724826
    12307.1907929483    0.1262738924781
    11804.655587608     0.116453906202276
    10249.4175883919    0.100540150724826
    9607.03640753812    0.101614826463312
    11130.8413059431    0.100596791997409
    10249.4175883919    0.100540150724826
    6973.69243171186    0.0644901191669685
    9605.88647121359    0.0967178499759486

From what I understand SRID determines unit of measure for the spatial column, but obviously, since both of these are SRID 4326 that is not the case? Any help would be appreciated. I believe what I'm seeing here is degrees instead of meters. Is there an easy way in SQL to convert degrees to meters? Or a way to change what unit STDistance uses for output?

Answer 1

You can get a definitive answer on which unit of measurement STDistance is using with the following query. For 4326 (for example), it's the meter.

SELECT *
FROM sys.spatial_reference_systems
WHERE spatial_reference_id = 4326