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Converting from Geodetic to Geocentric latitude.

The geodetic latitude is given by the angle between the normal to the spheroid and the plane of the equator. The normal to the spheroid is the normal to the tangent plane of the spheroid. Let r be a point on the surface of the spheroid. Then the tangent plane at r is given by ...


equation756
Where s and t are the unit vectors along s and t at r.

The normal is perpendicular to all vectors in the tangent plane.
equation758

Thus the normal is ...
equation760

The projection of the normal onto the equatorial plane is given by
equation762

The cos of the angle between the normal and the equatorial plane is given by the dot product of the normal vector and its projection divided by their lengths.
equation764

Multiply by cos2(t)/cos2(t)...
equation766

This implies that tex2html_wrap_inline1237 is the angle in a right angled triangle with adjacent side b and hypotenuse tex2html_wrap_inline1251 and opposite side, (by pythagoras), of a tex2html_wrap_inline1253. Thus the tex2html_wrap_inline1255 would be the opposite side over the adjacent side, giving tex2html_wrap_inline1237 as...
equation748

Solving the definition of e for b gives us...
equation770

Thus...
eqnarray772


John Carter
Fri Feb 21 14:23:22 SAT 1997