Calculate distance between 2 GPS coordinates

Solution 1:

Calculate the distance between two coordinates by latitude and longitude, including a Javascript implementation.

West and South locations are negative. Remember minutes and seconds are out of 60 so S31 30' is -31.50 degrees.

Don't forget to convert degrees to radians. Many languages have this function. Or its a simple calculation: radians = degrees * PI / 180.

function degreesToRadians(degrees) {
  return degrees * Math.PI / 180;
}

function distanceInKmBetweenEarthCoordinates(lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2) {
  var earthRadiusKm = 6371;

  var dLat = degreesToRadians(lat2-lat1);
  var dLon = degreesToRadians(lon2-lon1);

  lat1 = degreesToRadians(lat1);
  lat2 = degreesToRadians(lat2);

  var a = Math.sin(dLat/2) * Math.sin(dLat/2) +
          Math.sin(dLon/2) * Math.sin(dLon/2) * Math.cos(lat1) * Math.cos(lat2); 
  var c = 2 * Math.atan2(Math.sqrt(a), Math.sqrt(1-a)); 
  return earthRadiusKm * c;
}

Here are some examples of usage:

distanceInKmBetweenEarthCoordinates(0,0,0,0)  // Distance between same 
                                              // points should be 0
0

distanceInKmBetweenEarthCoordinates(51.5, 0, 38.8, -77.1) // From London
                                                          // to Arlington
5918.185064088764

Solution 2:

Look for haversine with Google; here is my solution:

#include <math.h>
#include "haversine.h"

#define d2r (M_PI / 180.0)

//calculate haversine distance for linear distance
double haversine_km(double lat1, double long1, double lat2, double long2)
{
    double dlong = (long2 - long1) * d2r;
    double dlat = (lat2 - lat1) * d2r;
    double a = pow(sin(dlat/2.0), 2) + cos(lat1*d2r) * cos(lat2*d2r) * pow(sin(dlong/2.0), 2);
    double c = 2 * atan2(sqrt(a), sqrt(1-a));
    double d = 6367 * c;

    return d;
}

double haversine_mi(double lat1, double long1, double lat2, double long2)
{
    double dlong = (long2 - long1) * d2r;
    double dlat = (lat2 - lat1) * d2r;
    double a = pow(sin(dlat/2.0), 2) + cos(lat1*d2r) * cos(lat2*d2r) * pow(sin(dlong/2.0), 2);
    double c = 2 * atan2(sqrt(a), sqrt(1-a));
    double d = 3956 * c; 

    return d;
}