From Decimal degrees to meter

[KasperSmith_Larsen]

Hey Guys

I have a data set Air mass trajectories (excel file) with a lot of points given in decimal degrees. I have plotted the trajectories in Arcmap but I need to know the distance between them. They span more or less from equator to Greenland so there is the issue of different E/W distances.

Regards Kasper       

[DanPatterson_Retired]

I don't work with data covering such a large area, but I would suggest km...in any event you probably want the geodesic distances which have new options in 10.2.1 perhaps using the Near tool

[stefanstamenov]

converting decimal degrees to miles, kilometers,

[stefanstamenov]

This must work, though I never used it

Latitude/Longitude Distance Calculator

[BruceHarold · Accepted solution]

If you do not have Desktop Advanced and the Near GP tool then provided you can deal with 0.5% error then the Haversine formula might be suitable.

Or Vincenty if you want to get fancy.

[KasperSmith_Larsen]

Thanks for your answers.

I have tried using the Haversine formula in excel but I can’t get the right distance. I have calculated the following parameter:

R = earth’s radius (mean radius = 6,371km)

Δlat = lat2− lat1

Δlong = long2− long1

a = sin²(Δlat/2) + cos(lat1)*cos(lat2)*sin²(Δlong/2)

c = 2*atan2(√a, √(1−a))

d = R*c (distance)

As described at http://www.ig.utexas.edu/outreach/googleearth/latlong.html

It says on the web-site that angles need to be in radians and I tried with radians calculated from both decimal degrees and degrees, minutes, seconds. 

[BruceHarold]

I think Excel does something unusual with ATAN2.

Lat/Lon Distance Excel (Spherical Law of Cosines and Haversine Formula in Excel) | feed on my links

[KasperSmith_Larsen]

Now I got the Haversine fomula to work so problem solved

Thanks to all of you for your input they really helped.