6.

Reference Ellipsoid and the Geodetic Coordinate System

 The shape of the Earth is approximated by a regular ellipsoid,

 The ellipsoid (reference surface) is used to represent the mathematical shape of the
geoid.
 Thus, a one to-one correspondence b/n the points on the Earth’s surface and the points on
the ellipsoid can be established.
 This requires concepts of spherical trigonometry
 6.1 Fundamentals of Spherical Trigonometry

Spherical Triangle
• The projection of features on the Earth on to the the Elipsoid
needs some computations.
• So Basic concept of Spherical triangle is important

o A spherical triangle is a closed figure formed on the surface

of a sphere that is bounded by three arcs of great circles.
o The three arcs of great circles are called the sides of the
spherical triangle, denoted by lowercase letters a, b, and c.
o The spherical angles formed by the arcs of great circles are
called the angles of the spherical triangle, denoted by the
uppercase letters A, B, and C.
o A trihedron O-ABC is formed by connecting the vertices of
the spherical triangle ABC with the center of the sphere O.
 The radian measure of a central angle of a circle is equivalent to
the length of the arc the angle subtends,
 Hence,
o the arc length of any side of the spherical triangle equals its
subtended face angle of the trihedral angle;
o the angles of the spherical triangle are equal to the
corresponding dihedral angles of the trihedral angle.

6.2 Formulae for Spherical Trigonometry

The formulae for spherical trigonometry are defined as the formula applied to obtain the
unknown parts based on the given elements (sides, angles) of a spherical triangle.
6.2.1 Sine Formula
Based on the Fig, some important sine formulas are:

Sine Formula
 6.3 Reference Ellipsoid
6.3.1 Reference Surface for Geodetic Surveying Computations

o Because of the irregularity of the actual shape of the Earth, a

regular curved surface should be selected as a reference surface
for the performance of geodetic surveying & computations.
 Conventional terrestrial surveys can only determine directions,
distances, and astronomical azimuths between points on the
Earth’s surface
 However, a reference surface (control points ) upon which
computations are performed is needed.
 To obtain coordinates of the horizontal control points, series
of computations are needed
The reference surface that fits for the geodetic surveying computations
should satisfy the following three conditions:

i) The reference surface should be a curved surface that approximates

the physical shape of the Earth
ii) The curved surface should be a mathematical surface on which
computations are easily performed so as to assure the possibility of
calculating coordinates through observational quantities
iii) The positions of the curved surface relative to the geoid should be
fixed so as to establish the one-to-one correspondence between the
points on the Earth’s surface and those on the reference surface
o The reference ellipsoid is an oblate ellipsoid (with a bulge at the
equator and flattening at the Poles) approximates the geoid.
 Precise observations have shown that:
 The North Pole bulges out by 16 m and the South Pole is
depressed by approximately 16 m when the geoid is
compared with a properly defined ellipsoid
 The intersection line between the geoid and the equatorial
plane is not a perfect circle, but more closely approximates
an ellipsoid.
 The major axis of the ellipsoid on the equator is at 150 west
longitude.
 The difference between the semi-major axis (equatorial
radius) & the semi-minor axis (polar radius) is 69.5 m.
 The equatorial flattening is 1:91,827, which is approximately
one three-hundredth of the polar flattening
o When an Earth ellipsoid is selected:
 its relative location to the geoid should be determined
 parameters & orientations needs to be defined.
 the terrestrial observations in the geodetic control network need to be reduced to the
reference ellipsoid so as to perform computations on this surface
 Hence, the reference ellipsoid becomes:
 the reference surface for surveying computations.
 Its ellipsoidal normal becomes the datum line for surveying computations.
 points from the physical surface of the Earth are projected directly onto the
ellipsoid along the ellipsoidal normal
 The reference ellipsoid defines the geodetic coordinate system
 The reference ellipsoid is a mathematically defined surface that approximates the
physical shape of the Earth.
 The reference ellipsoid has played prominent roles in surveying and mapping. It is:
i. used as the reference surface for the determination of the horizontal
coordinates (geodetic longitude & latitude) &the geodetic height of a point on
the Earth’s surface.
ii. the reference surface to describe the shape of the geoid.
iii. serves as the reference surface for map projection
 6.3.2 Geometric Parameters of the Reference Ellipsoid and Their Correlations

 There are six commonly used geometric parameters in the Earth ellipsoid:

i) Semi-major axis a

ii) Semi-minor axis b

iii) Polar radius of curvature

iv) Flattening

v) First eccentricity o Eccentricity is the ratio of the distance of the

focus from the centre of the ellipse & the
distance of one end of the ellipse from the
vi) Second eccentricity centre of the ellipse.
o helps to understand how circular it is with
reference to a circle.

 a, b, c, f, e, and e´ are the six geometric parameters often used in the Earth ellipsoid.
 In geodesy, a and f are customarily used to represent the geometric shape of the Earth
ellipsoid

Relationship Between a and b

Relationship Between e and e'

Hence
 Relationship Between a and c

Relationship Between f and e

Exercise
1. Suppose a given datum has an equatorial radius of 6378137 m and a Polar radius of 6356752.31414m,
Calculate
a) Polar radius of curvature
b) Flattening
c) First eccentricity
d) Second eccentricity
6.4 Relationship Between the Geodetic Coordinate System and the Geodetic Spatial
Rectangular Coordinate System

6.4.1 Introduction
 Description of the shape & size of the Earth as well as measurement of distances on its
surfaces and definitions of position locations inevitably depends upon the use of a
Reference Coordinate System
 Spherical Coordinates and spherical trigonometry are essential tools for the
mathematical manipulations of coordinates of objects.
 Points in space are defined using coordinate systems
 Coordinate systems can be cartesian, Polar or spherical/spheroidal

 Cartesian coordinate System is used to

reference a Point in 2D plane using a pair of
coordinates (X, Y),
• Polar coordinate is
 used to define any point on 2D plane by its radial
distance r from the origin and an angle θ measured
in radians
 The angle θ is always measured from X-axis to the
radial line from the origin to the point
 in radial coordinates it is defined by the pair (r, θ).
• Using Pythagoras and trigonometry, we can convert
between Cartesian and polar coordinates:

And back again:

 A spherical coordinate system:
o is a coordinate system for 3D spaces where the
position of a given point in space is specified
by three numbers: r, θ, φ
 r is the radial distance connecting the point to the
fixed point of origin;
 θ is the polar angle of the radial line r; and
 φ is the azimuthal angle of the radial line r.

Can be converted in to Cartesian coordinate

 Once the radius is fixed, the three coordinates (r, θ, φ), provide a coordinate system in
a space (spherical polar coordinates).
 On the ellipsoid, positions are expressed either in geodetic
latitude (φ), longitude (λ) and ellipsoidal height (h) or
Cartesian coordinates (X, Y, Z)
o The Geodetic Coordinate System:
 Considers angular coordinates
 used to describe the geometric position of a point on the
Earth’s surface
 expressed by the geodetic longitude (λ), geodetic latitude
(φ), and geodetic height (h)
6.4.1 Definitions of the Geodetic Coordinate System and the Rectangular
Coordinate System

o The Geodetic Coordinate System is:

 used to describe the geometric position of a point on
the Earth’s surface
 expressed by the geodetic longitude (L), geodetic
latitude (B), and geodetic height (H)
 Geodetic longitude:
o is the angle in the equatorial plane
between the line that connects the
Earth's center with the prime
meridian and the line that connects
the center with the meridian on which
the point lies.
 A meridian is a direct path on the
surface of the datum that is the
shortest distance b/n the poles.
o expressed in degrees with decimal
fraction.
 There are 360 degrees of
longitude, starting at the prime
meridian (0° longitude) and
proceeding eastward in a positive
direction through 180° and west in
negative values through –180°
 The geodetic latitude is the angle b/n the
equatorial plane & the perpendicular line that
intersects the normal line at the point on the
surface of the Earth
 are measured southward or northward from
the equator to poles,
 positive towards the north and negative
towards the south, ranging from 0 to 90,
 Apparently, all points on the same parallel
have the same latitude.
 The geodetic height is
the distance of a point
from the reference
ellipsoid along the
perpendicular from the
reference ellipsoid to
this point, positive if
upwards or outside of
the reference ellipsoid
or negative inward.
 The geodetic longitude L, geodetic
latitude B, and geodetic height H
constitute a 3D geodetic coordinate
system.
 These three coordinate values can
uniquely specify the position of a point on
the Earth’s surface.
 The Geodetic Spatial Rectangular coordinate is:
o a Cartesian coordinate system described using
rectangular coordinates X,Y, Z
o Derived from the geodetic coordinate system
o Its origin is at the center of the ellipsoid,
 the line of intersection between the initial geodetic
meridian and the equatorial plane is the X-axis.
 The Y-axis is perpendicular to the X-axis on the
equatorial plane.
 The Z-axis is the spin axis of the ellipsoid, and
 the right-handed coordinate system O-XYZ is thus
formed.
 The position of point P is represented by X, Y, and
Z.
 6.4.2 Transformation Between Geodetic and Cartesian Coordinates

The geodetic Cartesian coordinates (x,y,z) can be

computed using geodetic coordinates (φ , λ & h).

where N is the radius of curvature, ᵩ and ۸ are, respectively, the latitude and longitude
from the ellipsoid, and ℎ is a height above it.
N is determined as: Where a is the equatorial radius
(6378137 m), b is the polar radius
(6356752.31414m)
e is first eccentricity and given as=
o To convert back in to the Geodetic coordinate
 First compute the longitude:

 Next the physical radius of the point and the radius in the x-y plane are
computed and used in an initial estimate of the altitude.

 The geocentric latitude is computed exactly,

𝜑𝜑

 h is computed as N
 Exercise:
1) Find the Cartesian coordinates for the following given geodetic coordinates
φ=33044’56’’
Hint: a = 6378137 m, b = 6356752.31414m
ℓ=77011’ 22’’ S/n:
h = 5,555.660 m • 1st convert DMS to Decimal Degrees
• 2nd Identify the Geodetic Reference/Datum used
𝑥𝑥 = ? • Find eccentricity (e)= 0.0818192
y=? • Find radius of curvature (N)=6384780.63
z=?

2) Find the geodetic coordinates for the following Cartesian coordinates

X= 1,177,888.777 𝜑𝜑 = ?
Y= 5,166,777.888 𝜆𝜆 = ?
Z = 3,544,555.666 h=?
 6.5 Normal Section and Geodesic

 In order to carry out geodetic computations on the

surface of ellipsoid, computing normal section is
significant
 Normal Section is:
 a curve formed by the intersection of a plane that
contains the normal at a given point to the surface of
the ellipsoid
o Consider first a normal to the surface of the ellipsoid at
some point.
 A particular plane will cut the surface of the ellipsoid
forming a curve which is known as the normal section
 At every point on the ellipsoid, infinitely
many normal sections pass.
o the radius of curvature varies with the
direction of the normal sections.
 the formula for radius of curvature of
the normal section in an arbitrary
direction, followed by that in special
directions.
 Computing the normal section involves solving simultaneous
equations where one is the equation of an ellipsoid and the other is
the equation of normal section plane which is a plane curve.
 The radius of curvature of the normal section can be obtained
according to the formula for radius of curvature of the plane curve

 An ellipsoid is symmetrical about three mutually perpendicular

axes that intersect at the centre.
 If a, b, and c are the principal semi-axes, the general
equation of such an ellipsoid is defined by a quadratic
surface which is defined in cartesian coordinates as

x2/a2 + y2/b2 + z2/c2 = 1.

Where a, b, and c are the length of the semi-axes
 A special case arises when a = b = c: then the surface is a sphare,
 If two axes are equal, say a = b, and different from the third, c, then the ellipsoid is an ellipsoid of revolution,
or spheroid, the figure formed by revolving an ellipse about one of its axes.
 If a and b are greater than c, the spheroid is oblate;
 if less, the surface is a prolate spheroid.
.
 Ellipsoid with respect to coordinate axes from polar
(Longitude) is parameterized from:

and θ is the polar angle and φ is the azimuth

angle of the point (x, y, z) of the ellipsoid, a
is the equatorial radius, b is the polar radius,
C is the polar radius of curvature given as:
 Ellipsoid with respect to coordinate axes from
equatorial plain (latitude) is parameterized as:

θ is the parametric latitude and λ is azimuth or longitude.

o RZ is the rotation matrix.

o By the same token, we can obtain the transformation formulae of the coordinate
system by rotating it about the X-axis and the Y-axis, and the rotation matrixes
RX and RY are given by:
o The Cartesian coordinate system can be
transformed by rotating the coordinate system
through a counter-clockwise angle θz about the
Z-axis (θz is positive) according to right-hand
rule; as:
Measuring angles directly to the surface of the ellipsoid is computed from:

 θ would be geocentric latitude on the Earth, and λ is longitude.

 These are true spherical coordinates with the origin at the centre of the ellipsoid.
A geodesic:
o also called a geodetic line
o defined as the shortest distance between two points
on the surface of the ellipsoid
o The geodetic line on the ellipsoid is analogous to a
great circle on a sphere.
 When drawn on a Mercator projection, a geodetic
line appears to be curved even though on the
ellipsoid it bends neither to the right nor to the A geodesic AB on an ellipsoid of
left. revolution. N is the north pole
and EFH lie on the equator.
 6.6 Astronomical Longitude and Latitude and Geodetic Longitude and Latitude

Astronomic latitudes and longitudes:

o are achieved by astronomic observations.
o are based on the physical properties of the earth instead of on
an ellipsoid
o uses the stars and other celestial bodies to orient local
terrestrial reference frames

• Latitude is the angular value of arc part between equator

and parallel which passes any point on earth is latitude.
• Longitude is the angular value between meridian which
passes any point on earth and meridian of Greenwich
observatory.
• Geodetic coordinates
o are based on and oriented to an ellipsoid
o are angular coordinates (longitude and latitude), closely related to
spherical polar coordinates
o are defined relative to a particular Earth geodetic datum