Ground rules for spatial operations algorithm development
A Spatial Operation (SO) for Earth specific applications is a
coordinate transformation, a coordinate conversion, an azimuth
determination, a distance calculation or other computations
associated with elliptical trigonometry and map projections.
GR 1: Consider the current computational environment:
- a surfeit of low cost Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM),
- high speed cache available,
- super scalar architectures for pipelined (parallel processing),
- very high speed processing of some standard mathematical functions,
- improved compilers consistent with pipelined processing,
- operating systems with dynamic optimization of resources,
- IEEE double precision as nominal processing mode.
GR 2: Consider the domain of application:
- develop for all regions but recognize that specific regions or
applications may require different approaches,
- do not lose sight of the fact that majority of applications are in the near Earth
region [-12, 35] kilometres (in geodetic height). This region encompasses the
lowest point of Earth bathymetry (Marianas Trench) to the limit of air breather flight.