Calculate the center point of multiple latitude/longitude coordinate pairs

Question

Given a set of latitude and longitude points, how can I calculate the latitude and longitude of the center point of that set (aka a point that would center a view on all poi

Answer 1

In Django this is trivial (and actually works, I had issues with a number of the solutions not correctly returning negatives for latitude).

For instance, let's say you are using django-geopostcodes (of which I am the author).

from django.contrib.gis.geos import MultiPoint
from django.contrib.gis.db.models.functions import Distance
from django_geopostcodes.models import Locality

qs = Locality.objects.anything_icontains('New York')
points = [locality.point for locality in qs]
multipoint = MultiPoint(*points)
point = multipoint.centroid

point is a Django Point instance that can then be used to do things such as retrieve all objects that are within 10km of that centre point;

Locality.objects.filter(point__distance_lte=(point, D(km=10)))\
    .annotate(distance=Distance('point', point))\
    .order_by('distance')

Changing this to raw Python is trivial;

from django.contrib.gis.geos import Point, MultiPoint

points = [
    Point((145.137075, -37.639981)),
    Point((144.137075, -39.639981)),
]
multipoint = MultiPoint(*points)
point = multipoint.centroid

Under the hood Django is using GEOS - more details at https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/ref/contrib/gis/geos/

Answer 2

Very useful post! I've implemented this in JavaScript, hereby my code. I've used this successfully.

function rad2degr(rad) { return rad * 180 / Math.PI; }
function degr2rad(degr) { return degr * Math.PI / 180; }

/**
 * @param latLngInDeg array of arrays with latitude and longtitude
 *   pairs in degrees. e.g. [[latitude1, longtitude1], [latitude2
 *   [longtitude2] ...]
 *
 * @return array with the center latitude longtitude pairs in 
 *   degrees.
 */
function getLatLngCenter(latLngInDegr) {
    var LATIDX = 0;
    var LNGIDX = 1;
    var sumX = 0;
    var sumY = 0;
    var sumZ = 0;

    for (var i=0; i<latLngInDegr.length; i++) {
        var lat = degr2rad(latLngInDegr[i][LATIDX]);
        var lng = degr2rad(latLngInDegr[i][LNGIDX]);
        // sum of cartesian coordinates
        sumX += Math.cos(lat) * Math.cos(lng);
        sumY += Math.cos(lat) * Math.sin(lng);
        sumZ += Math.sin(lat);
    }

    var avgX = sumX / latLngInDegr.length;
    var avgY = sumY / latLngInDegr.length;
    var avgZ = sumZ / latLngInDegr.length;

    // convert average x, y, z coordinate to latitude and longtitude
    var lng = Math.atan2(avgY, avgX);
    var hyp = Math.sqrt(avgX * avgX + avgY * avgY);
    var lat = Math.atan2(avgZ, hyp);

    return ([rad2degr(lat), rad2degr(lng)]);
}

Answer 3

If you wish to take into account the ellipsoid being used you can find the formulae here http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/gps/docs/A_Guide_to_Coordinate_Systems_in_Great_Britain.pdf

see Annexe B

The document contains lots of other useful stuff

B

Answer 4

The simple approach of just averaging them has weird edge cases with angles when they wrap from 359' back to 0'.

A much earlier question on SO asked about finding the average of a set of compass angles.

An expansion of the approach recommended there for spherical coordinates would be:

• Convert each lat/long pair into a unit-length 3D vector.
• Sum each of those vectors
• Normalise the resulting vector
• Convert back to spherical coordinates

Answer 5

Javascript version of the original function

/**
 * Get a center latitude,longitude from an array of like geopoints
 *
 * @param array data 2 dimensional array of latitudes and longitudes
 * For Example:
 * $data = array
 * (
 *   0 = > array(45.849382, 76.322333),
 *   1 = > array(45.843543, 75.324143),
 *   2 = > array(45.765744, 76.543223),
 *   3 = > array(45.784234, 74.542335)
 * );
*/
function GetCenterFromDegrees(data)
{       
    if (!(data.length > 0)){
        return false;
    } 

    var num_coords = data.length;

    var X = 0.0;
    var Y = 0.0;
    var Z = 0.0;

    for(i = 0; i < data.length; i++){
        var lat = data[i][0] * Math.PI / 180;
        var lon = data[i][1] * Math.PI / 180;

        var a = Math.cos(lat) * Math.cos(lon);
        var b = Math.cos(lat) * Math.sin(lon);
        var c = Math.sin(lat);

        X += a;
        Y += b;
        Z += c;
    }

    X /= num_coords;
    Y /= num_coords;
    Z /= num_coords;

    var lon = Math.atan2(Y, X);
    var hyp = Math.sqrt(X * X + Y * Y);
    var lat = Math.atan2(Z, hyp);

    var newX = (lat * 180 / Math.PI);
    var newY = (lon * 180 / Math.PI);

    return new Array(newX, newY);
}

Answer 6

very nice solutions, just what i needed for my swift project, so here's a swift port. thanks & here's also a playground project: https://github.com/ppoh71/playgounds/tree/master/centerLocationPoint.playground

/*
* calculate the center point of multiple latitude longitude coordinate-pairs
*/

import CoreLocation
import GLKit

var LocationPoints = [CLLocationCoordinate2D]()

//add some points to Location ne, nw, sw, se , it's a rectangle basicaly
LocationPoints.append(CLLocationCoordinate2D(latitude: 37.627512369999998, longitude: -122.38780611999999))
LocationPoints.append(CLLocationCoordinate2D(latitude: 37.627512369999998, longitude:  -122.43105867))
LocationPoints.append(CLLocationCoordinate2D(latitude: 37.56502528, longitude: -122.43105867))
LocationPoints.append(CLLocationCoordinate2D(latitude: 37.56502528, longitude: -122.38780611999999))

// center func
func getCenterCoord(LocationPoints: [CLLocationCoordinate2D]) -> CLLocationCoordinate2D{

    var x:Float = 0.0;
    var y:Float = 0.0;
    var z:Float = 0.0;

    for points in LocationPoints {

     let lat = GLKMathDegreesToRadians(Float(points.latitude));
     let long = GLKMathDegreesToRadians(Float(points.longitude));

        x += cos(lat) * cos(long);
        y += cos(lat) * sin(long);
        z += sin(lat);
    }

    x = x / Float(LocationPoints.count);
    y = y / Float(LocationPoints.count);
    z = z / Float(LocationPoints.count);

    let resultLong = atan2(y, x);
    let resultHyp = sqrt(x * x + y * y);
    let resultLat = atan2(z, resultHyp);



    let result = CLLocationCoordinate2D(latitude: CLLocationDegrees(GLKMathRadiansToDegrees(Float(resultLat))), longitude: CLLocationDegrees(GLKMathRadiansToDegrees(Float(resultLong))));

    return result;

}

//get the centerpoint
var centerPoint = getCenterCoord(LocationPoints)
print("Latitude: \(centerPoint.latitude) / Longitude: \(centerPoint.longitude)")