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The horizontal coordinate system is a celestial coordinate system that uses the observer's local horizon as the fundamental plane to define two angles of a spherical coordinate system: altitude and azimuth. Therefore, the horizontal coordinate system is sometimes called the az/el system, [1] the alt/az system, or the alt-azimuth system, among
Altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference ...
A geographic coordinate system (GCS) is a spherical or geodetic coordinate system for measuring and communicating positions directly on Earth as latitude and longitude. [1] It is the simplest, oldest and most widely used type of the various spatial reference systems that are in use, and forms the basis for most others.
Geodetic latitude and geocentric latitude have different definitions. Geodetic latitude is defined as the angle between the equatorial plane and the surface normal at a point on the ellipsoid, whereas geocentric latitude is defined as the angle between the equatorial plane and a radial line connecting the centre of the ellipsoid to a point on the surface (see figure).
The geocentric altitude is a type of altitude defined as the difference between the two aforementioned quantities: h ′ = R − R 0; [3] it is not to be confused for the geodetic altitude. Conversions between ECEF and geodetic coordinates (latitude and longitude) are discussed at geographic coordinate conversion .
The World Geodetic System (WGS) is a standard used in cartography, geodesy, and satellite navigation including GPS.The current version, WGS 84, defines an Earth-centered, Earth-fixed coordinate system and a geodetic datum, and also describes the associated Earth Gravitational Model (EGM) and World Magnetic Model (WMM).
In geodesy, geographic coordinate conversion is defined as translation among different coordinate formats or map projections all referenced to the same geodetic datum. [1] A geographic coordinate transformation is a translation among different geodetic datums. Both geographic coordinate conversion and transformation will be considered in this ...
Geographic latitude must be used with care, as some authors use it as a synonym for geodetic latitude whilst others use it as an alternative to the astronomical latitude. "Latitude" (unqualified) should normally refer to the geodetic latitude. The importance of specifying the reference datum may be illustrated by a simple example.