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https://github.com/tdjastrzebski/vincenty-excel

Thaddeus Vincenty's Direct and Inverse formulae for geodesic calculations in Excel (distance, azimuth, latitude, longitude).
https://github.com/tdjastrzebski/vincenty-excel

azimuth distance excel geodesic-calculations geodesy latitude longitude thaddeus-vincenty vba vba-excel vba-macros vincenty-formula vincenty-inverse

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Thaddeus Vincenty's Direct and Inverse formulae for geodesic calculations in Excel (distance, azimuth, latitude, longitude).

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README 

          
# Vincenty's Direct and Inverse Solution of Geodesics on the Ellipsoid - Excel VBA implementation

**to calculate new coordinate based on azimuth and distance (direct)  

or distance and azimuth based on two coordinates (inverse)**

> **Algorithms by Thaddeus Vincenty (1975)**  

> Based on the implementation in Java Script by Chris Veness  

> https://www.movable-type.co.uk/scripts/latlong-vincenty.html  

> https://github.com/chrisveness/geodesy



To make the long story short, I was looking for a way to calculate coordinates, distance and azimuth in Excel.

I checked out several available solutions but they were either incomplete, did not work or results were inaccurate.

That is how I ended up developing my own, complete Vincenty's Direct and Inverse formulae implementation.



![Excel screenshot](ExcelScreenshot.png)



## How to use it?

+ Vincenty functions can be simply added to any existing Excel workbook. Download [Vincenty.bas](../../raw/master/Vincenty.bas) file, in Excel hit [Alt+F11] to open Visual Basic editor. Next, in the browser panel right-click on **VBA Project (your file name)**, select **Import File** and choose downloaded [Vincenty.bas](../../raw/master/Vincenty.bas) module. Then save as 'macro-enabled workbook" and you will be able to use added functions in your Excel formulas. In a cell just start typing: `=Vincenty..` and you should see the list of added functions. Do NOT simply copy-paste file text content to a new Excel module - file contains some extra lines not visible in VBA editor.

+ Functions and their parameters are listed in Excel function wizard under the **Geodesic** category.

+ If you prefer to use Excel Add-in instead, you can simply save workbook as Add-in. Note that Add-in file must be placed in a directory registered as "Trusted Location". See [Add, remove, or change a trusted location](https://support.office.com/en-us/article/add-remove-or-change-a-trusted-location-7ee1cdc2-483e-4cbb-bcb3-4e7c67147fb4) for more details. Although IntelliSense in not available for VBA add-in UDFs, add-in has one important advantage: it can be shared among many Excel workbooks, simplifying future updates.



## Excel files

+ [Vincenty.xlsm](../../raw/master/Vincenty.xlsm) - Excel Macro-Enabled Demo Workbook (demo)

+ [Vincenty.xls](../../raw/master/Vincenty.xls) - Excel 97-2003 Demo Workbook

+ [Vincenty.bas](../../raw/master/Vincenty.bas) - VBA module source code - can be simply added to any existing workbook

+ [PL2000.bas](../../raw/master/PL2000.bas) - VBA module source code - contains functions to translate WGS84 coordinates to/from the Polish geodetic coordinate system (PL-2000), based on the Gauss-Krüger coordinate system.



## Implementation

Solution contains 6 functions implementing **Vincenty's Direct** and **Vincenty's Inverse** formulae as well as 2 functions for Decimal ↔ Degrees/Minutes/Seconds format conversion, and uses **WGS84** model.  

> Most function arguments and return values are 64-bit high precision. In VBA `Double` data type denotes 64-bit floating-point number, regardless of Excel edition (32/64 bit).



+ `VincentyDirLat(lat as Double, lon as Double, azimuth as Double, distance as Double) as Variant` 

Calculates geodesic latitude (in degrees) based on one point, bearing (in degrees) and distance (in m) using Vincenty's direct formula for ellipsoids.

+ `VincentyDirLon(lat as Double, lon as Double, azimuth as Double, distance as Double) as Variant` 

Calculates geodesic longitude (in degrees) based on one point, bearing (in degrees) and distance (in m) using Vincenty's direct formula for ellipsoids.

+ `VincentyDirRevAzimuth(lat as Double, lon as Double, azimuth as Double, distance as Double, [returnAzimuth as Boolean = False]) as Variant` 

Calculates geodesic reverse azimuth (in degrees) based on one point, bearing (in degrees) and distance (in m) using Vincenty's direct formula for ellipsoids.

__Note__: by default azimuth from point 1 to point 2 at point 2 is returned. To obtain azimuth from point 2 to point 1 pass `returnAzimuth = true`.

+ `VincentyInvDistance(lat1 as Double, lon1 as Double, lat2 as Double, lon2 as Double) as Variant` 

Calculates geodesic distance (in m) between two points specified by latitude/longitude (in numeric degrees) using Vincenty's inverse formula for ellipsoids.

+ `VincentyInvFwdAzimuth(lat1 as Double, lon1 as Double, lat2 as Double, lon2 as Double) as Variant` 

Calculates geodesic azimuth (in degrees) between two points specified by latitude/longitude (in numeric degrees) using Vincenty's inverse formula for ellipsoids.

+ `VincentyInvRevAzimuth(lat1 as Double, lon1 as Double, lat2 as Double, lon2 as Double, [returnAzimuth as Boolean = False]) as Variant` 

Calculates geodesic reverse azimuth (in degrees) between two points specified by latitude/longitude (in numeric degrees) using Vincenty's inverse formula for ellipsoids.

__Note__: by default azimuth from point 1 to point 2 at point 2 is returned. To obtain azimuth from point 2 to point 1 pass `returnAzimuth = true`.



### Support functions

+ `ConvertDegrees(decimalDeg as Double, optional isLongitude as Variant) as String` 

Converts decimal latitude, longitude or azimuth value to degrees/minutes/seconds string format. If isLongitude value is provided output will be formatted as either longitude (true) or latitude (false).

+ `ConvertDecimal(degreeDeg as String) as Variant` 

Converts latitude, longitude or azimuth string in degrees/minutes/seconds format to decimal value. This function has been designed to parse typical formats.

+ `NormalizeLat(lat as Double) as Double` 

Normalizes latitude to -90..+90 range.

+ `NormalizeLon(lon as Double) as Double` 

Normalizes longitude to -180..+180 range.

+ `NormalizeAzimuth(azimuth as Double, [positiveOnly as Boolean = False]) as Double` 

Normalizes azimuth to 0..360 range. __Note__: by default input and return values have the same sign. To obtain only positive values pass `positiveOnly = true`.



### PL-2000 translation functions

+ `From2000Lat(x As Double, y As Double, meridian As Integer) As Double`  

Calculates geodesic latitude (in degrees) based on PL-2000 X, Y coordinates and meridian.  

+ `From2000Lon(x As Double, y As Double, meridian As Integer) As Double`  

Calculates geodesic longitude (in degrees) based on PL-2000 X, Y coordinates and meridian.  

+ `To2000X(lat As Double, lon As Double, meridian As Integer) As Double`  

Calculates PL-2000 X coordinate based on geodesic latitude, longitude and target meridian.  

+ `To2000Y(lat As Double, lon As Double, meridian As Integer) As Double`  

Calculates PL-2000 Y coordinate based on geodesic latitude, longitude and target meridian.  



## Source code

Excel workbooks contain unprotected source code. In addition, for better change tracking, source code has been placed separately in [Vincenty.bas](Vincenty.bas) file. This file is all what is required to add implemented functions to any other Excel workbook.



## Validation

Calculation results have been validated using 1200 test cases generated for 6 range clusters and distance between 10 m and 30,000 km 

against **GeographicLib** by Charles Karney:

+ https://geographiclib.sourceforge.io/html/

+ https://geographiclib.sourceforge.io/cgi-bin/GeodSolve

+ https://geographiclib.sourceforge.io/scripts/geod-google.html

+ https://sourceforge.net/projects/geographiclib/

+ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00190-012-0578-z



and **Geoscience Australia** website  



+ https://geodesyapps.ga.gov.au/vincenty-direct

+ https://geodesyapps.ga.gov.au/vincenty-inverse

+ https://geodesyapps.ga.gov.au/vincenty-batch-processing



### Validation results - maximum deviation



 |GeographicLib |Geoscience Australia

-----|-----:|-----:

VincentyDirLat [degrees]|1.11E-9|3.96E-8

VincentyDirLon [degees]|6.54E-9|2.88E-7

VincentyDirRevAzimuth [degrees]|6.54E-9|5.05E-7

VincentyInvDistance [mm]|0.07240|0.53655

VincentyInvFwdAzimuth [degrees]|1.46E-6|1.46E-6

VincentyInvRevAzimuth [degrees]|1.46E-6|1.47E-6



### Conclusions

+ The gathered results are surprisingly coherent with GeographicLib results and noticeably less coherent with Geoscience Australia results.

+ Direct formulae

  + Latitude differs from GeographicLib results by no more than 1.11E-9 degrees at distance greater than 20,000km. At distance shorter than 2,000km difference is less than 1.0E-10 degrees.

  + Longitude differs from GeographicLib results by no more than 6.54E-9 degrees at distance greater than 10,000km and typically does not exceed 1.0E-10 degrees at shorter distances.

  + Reverse Azimuth differs by 6.45E-9 degrees max, at distances shorter than 10,000km difference stays below 1.0E-9 degrees, most of them are below 1.0E-10 degrees.

+ Inverse formulae

  + The difference in distance calculated by GeographicLib and this Excel library does not exceed 0.07mm, which is a surprisingly good result since Vincenty's formulae is believed to be "only" 0.5mm accurate, though little is known about how this has been established and what impact floating-point arithmetic precision makes - if any.

  + Distances shorter than 3 thousand kilometers show even much higher cohesion with GeographicLib results, differences do not exceed 0.01mm.

  + Calculated azimuths results differ from GeographicLib calculated values by 1.46E-6 degrees max at short distance. At about 2.5km difference drops to 1.0E-7 degrees, 1.0E-8 degrees at 10 km and to 1.0E-9 degrees at 100km.



I was only able to compare the achieved results with Geoscience Australia and GeographicLib, which is believed to be very accurate. I am not aware of substantially better references available publicly.  



For complete test results refer to [VincentyTest.xlsm](../../raw/master/VincentyTest.xlsm) file.



## References



+ [Wikipedia: Vincenty's formulae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincenty%27s_formulae)

+ [Thaddeus Vincenty: original publication (1)](https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/PUBS_LIB/inverse.pdf)

+ [Thaddeus Vincenty: original publication (2)](https://geographiclib.sourceforge.io/geodesic-papers/vincenty75b.pdf)

+ [Wikipedia: Geodesics on an ellipsoid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesics_on_an_ellipsoid)

+ [Wikipedia: Great-circle distance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great-circle_distance)

+ [Wikipedia: Haversine formula](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haversine_formula)



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