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Help for ^sphdist^                                                    Bill Rising
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Computes distances on a sphere (Earth as default)
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    ^sphdist^ [^if^ exp] [^in^ range]^, gen(^newvar^)^ ^lat1(^varlist^)^ ^lon1(^varlist^)^
        ^lat2(^varlist^)^ ^lon2(^varlist^)^ [^ew1(^varname^)^ ^sn1(^varname^)^ ^ew2(^varname^)^
        ^sn2(^varname^)^ ^radians^ ^radius(^number^)^ ^units(^{^km^ | ^mi^ | ^naut^}) ^thin^]


Description
-----------

This is used to find the distance between two points on a sphere for each
observation in a dataset. Typically this would be used to find distances
between points on Earth, though it will work just as well for points on,
say, the moon or a basketball. 


Options
-------

Most of the options are not optional! They are specified as options to
allow flexibility.

^gen^ is the name of the variable which holds the results. This is a required
option.

^lat1^, ^lon1^, ^lat2^, and ^lon2^ hold the variable or variables which specify the
latitudes (angles above or below the equator) and longitudes (angles east
or west of Greenwich). By default, the angles are expressed in degrees. Up
to three variables (corresponding to degrees, minutes, and seconds of arc)
are allowed for each latitude and longitude. Note, however, that the number
of variables for each need not be the same, so the precision of measurement
does not need to be identical. The command will use however many are
specified. If the angles are expressed in radians, only one variable for
each latitude and longitude may be specified. The latitudes and longitudes
are required options. Note: if all the measurements are from the same
quarter-sphere, there is no trouble -- all may be positive. If not, see the
immediately following set of options. These are all required.

^ew1^, ^sn1^, ^ew2^, and ^sn2^ options allow specification of variables which can
be used to indicate the hemisphere for each observation. Typically, for
those of us from the intersection of the northern and western hemispheres
(or the NW quartisphere), this would mean that the ew variable(s) would be
filled with -1 for east and 1 for west, while the sn variable(s) would
contain -1 for south and +1 for north, respectively. These options are
included for those whose data contain a mix of degree/minute/second data
from multiple hemispheres.

^radians^ states that the angles are in radians, rather than in
degrees. This, of course, means that just one variable can be given for
each of the latitude and longitude options.

^radius^ gives the radius of the sphere. If not specified, this defaults to
the radius of the Earth.

^units^ specifies the units of the final answer. This option has two
purposes. If a radius is not specified, the units are used to compute the
proper radius of the earth. In this case, the units default to ^km^, because
everyone except the U.S. and, uh, Liberia(?) uses the metric system. (This
must be why the system in the US is called either the Standard or the
English system.) Other acceptable choices here are ^mi^ for miles and ^naut^
for nautical miles. If a radius is specified, the units are merely used for
making a variable label for the newly generated distance variable.

^thin^ is an arcane option used if the dataset already takes up most of the
memory. It alters the data by dropping the variables used to specify the
latitudes and longitudes. So... use it with care.


Example(s)
----------

    ^sphdist, lat1(deg1nth min1nth sec1nth) lon1(deg1wst min1wst sec1wst)
        ^lat2(deg2nth min2nth sec2nth) lon2(deg2wst min2wst sec2wst)
        ^gen(kmdist)

    generates the new variable ^kmdist^ from the above latitude and longitude
    variables. The latitudes and longitudes are measured in degrees,
    minutes and seconds, and are either assumed to all be in a single
    quartisphere, or are negative in the proper places. The final result
    will be in kilometers of distance on the surface of the Earth.

    ^sphdist, lat1(degnth1) lon1(degwst1 minwst1) lat2(degnth2 minnth2 secnth2) lon2(degwst2)
        ^gen(nautdist) units(naut) ew1(ewlong)

    generates the new variable ^nautdist^ from the above latitude and
    longitude variables. The latitudes and longitudes are measured in
    varying ways using some or all of the degrees, minutes and seconds. All
    the latitudes are from the same hemisphere. All of the longitudes for
    the 'second' variables are in the same hemisphere, and the ewlong
    variable is 1 for observations in this same hemisphere, and -1 in the
    opposite one. The final result will be in nautical miles.


Notes
----- 

No error checking is done to be sure that there aren't fractional degrees
together with minutes and seconds, so it would be possible to feed the
program a point whose latitude is 34.56 degrees, 27.2 minutes and 70000
seconds.

If all the points are in one quartisphere (there is no English word for
quarter-of-the-globe), all angles can be expressed as positive numbers.

If anyone has a better way of treating observations which crass the equator
or the prime meridian, please let the author know. He is used to easy
distances in one quartisphere. No, he's never had data from the end of the
Aleutian islands.

If anyone knows the real name for a quartisphere, please let the author
know.

For those who, like the author, wonder why kids in the US are still stuck
learning that there are 12 inches to a foot, three feet to a yard, and 1760
yards to a mile, there is a special unit of distance which can also be
specified. It was added in a fit of pro-metric mania: the erca, which is
equal to the square root of an acre.


Author
------

Bill Rising (brising@@jhsph.edu)
Dept. of Biostatistics
Johns Hopkins University
615 N. Wolfe St.
Baltimore, MD 21205-2179
