Calculate distance between 2 GPS coordinates

Question

How do I calculate distance between two GPS coordinates (using latitude and longitude)?

Answer 1

I. Regarding "Breadcrumbs" method

1. Earth radius is different on different Lat. This must be taken into consideration in Haversine algorithm.
2. Consider Bearing change, which turns straight lines to arches (which are longer)
3. Taking Speed change into account will turn arches to spirals (which are longer or shorter than arches)
4. Altitude change will turn flat spirals to 3D spirals (which are longer again). This is very important for hilly areas.

Below see the function in C which takes #1 and #2 into account:

double   calcDistanceByHaversine(double rLat1, double rLon1, double rHeading1,
       double rLat2, double rLon2, double rHeading2){
  double rDLatRad = 0.0;
  double rDLonRad = 0.0;
  double rLat1Rad = 0.0;
  double rLat2Rad = 0.0;
  double a = 0.0;
  double c = 0.0;
  double rResult = 0.0;
  double rEarthRadius = 0.0;
  double rDHeading = 0.0;
  double rDHeadingRad = 0.0;

  if ((rLat1 < -90.0) || (rLat1 > 90.0) || (rLat2 < -90.0) || (rLat2 > 90.0)
              || (rLon1 < -180.0) || (rLon1 > 180.0) || (rLon2 < -180.0)
              || (rLon2 > 180.0)) {
        return -1;
  };

  rDLatRad = (rLat2 - rLat1) * DEGREE_TO_RADIANS;
  rDLonRad = (rLon2 - rLon1) * DEGREE_TO_RADIANS;
  rLat1Rad = rLat1 * DEGREE_TO_RADIANS;
  rLat2Rad = rLat2 * DEGREE_TO_RADIANS;

  a = sin(rDLatRad / 2) * sin(rDLatRad / 2) + sin(rDLonRad / 2) * sin(
              rDLonRad / 2) * cos(rLat1Rad) * cos(rLat2Rad);

  if (a == 0.0) {
        return 0.0;
  }

  c = 2 * atan2(sqrt(a), sqrt(1 - a));
  rEarthRadius = 6378.1370 - (21.3847 * 90.0 / ((fabs(rLat1) + fabs(rLat2))
              / 2.0));
  rResult = rEarthRadius * c;

  // Chord to Arc Correction based on Heading changes. Important for routes with many turns and U-turns

  if ((rHeading1 >= 0.0) && (rHeading1 < 360.0) && (rHeading2 >= 0.0)
              && (rHeading2 < 360.0)) {
        rDHeading = fabs(rHeading1 - rHeading2);
        if (rDHeading > 180.0) {
              rDHeading -= 180.0;
        }
        rDHeadingRad = rDHeading * DEGREE_TO_RADIANS;
        if (rDHeading > 5.0) {
              rResult = rResult * (rDHeadingRad / (2.0 * sin(rDHeadingRad / 2)));
        } else {
              rResult = rResult / cos(rDHeadingRad);
        }
  }
  return rResult;
}

II. There is an easier way which gives pretty good results.

By Average Speed.

Trip_distance = Trip_average_speed * Trip_time

Since GPS Speed is detected by Doppler effect and is not directly related to [Lon,Lat] it can be at least considered as secondary (backup or correction) if not as main distance calculation method.