Calculate LAT/LON when given start LAT/LON, azimuth and distance

hamiltow

New Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2009
Messages
11
I need to calculate the end LAT/LON for thousands of lines of data. The existing spreadsheet has the start LAT, start LON, azimuth and distance. Is there a formula so excel can calculate it for me?
 
Well, this is what i came up with;

On my worksheet;

Cell A2 is housing the header: "Latitude -1:"
Cell A3 is housing the header: "Longitude -1 :"
Cell A4 is housing the header:"Azimuth :"
Cell A5 is housing the header:"Distance:"
.

Cell B2 is housing the value: 33.3362
Cell B3 is housing the value: -82.21
Cell B4 is housing the value: 145.9
Cell B5 is housing the value: 5
.

Cell E2 is housing the header: "Latitude -2 :"
Cell E3 is housing the header: "Longitude -2 :"


.

I entered the following formula in cell F2 and got the result as; 33.2989617271686

Code:
=ASIN(SIN(B2*PI()/180)*COS(B5/6371)+COS(B2*PI()/180)*SIN(B5/6371)*COS(B4*PI()/180))*180/PI()

Then, entered the following formula in cell F3 and got the result as; -82.1798382123285

Code:
=(B3*PI()/180+ATAN2(COS(B5/6371)-SIN(F2*PI()/180)*SIN(F2*PI()/180);SIN(B4*PI()/180)*SIN(B5/6371)*COS(F2*PI()/180)))*180/PI()

Depending on your version of Excel you are using, you may need to change the semicolon characters(;) to comma (,)

The results seem to be OK with the online tool i mentioned in my previous post.
 
Last edited:
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Excel Facts

Round to nearest half hour?
Use =MROUND(A2,"0:30") to round to nearest half hour. Use =CEILING(A2,"0:30") to round to next half hour.
This thread answered my search for an azimuth formula using two sets of latitude and longitude. It worked great on my spreadsheet except that my Lat -1 and Lon -1 are set entries and I use entered locations latitude and longitude for azimuths to them. My question is the azimuth cell is populated with a value until the Lat -2 and Lon -2 values are entered so how can I keep the cell empty until those are entered? This is purely cosmetic as once the -2 values are entered it gives a good azimuth.

Thanks in advance for any help on this.
 
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What are the units for distance? I looked and couldn't figure it out. Nautical miles? Meters? Statute Miles?
 
Upvote 0
kilometers

Thanks. Then somewhere I'll factor in 1842 m/nm.
Should be pretty quick.
A sailing race committee for a windward/leeward race will post a distance in nautical miles and a bearing, so I'd like to be able to calculate lat/lon for the destination.
Garmin used to have a way to "project" a waypoint in my old handheld GPS but they "improved" it out of my 741 chartplotter so I'll need to calculate separately and then manually input the lat/lon.
Garmin's advice to pick a destination was particularly dumb, since all the water looks the same.
 
Upvote 0
1852

Or you could change the 6371 values (earth radius in km) in the formulas to 3440 (~ nautical miles).
 
Last edited:
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What are the units for distance? I looked and couldn't figure it out. Nautical miles? Meters? Statute Miles?

As seen in messages #3 and #7 , the distance is measured in km.

Also, the radius of earth is measured in kilometers as shg pointed in his/her message.
 
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