How to find heading angle between two points on Earth - straight through the Earth just as if they were two points in Empty space?

Question

I would like to get the formula on how to calculate the Euclidian distance between two geographical co-ordinates on earth and heading angle relative to True North. Say from New York to New Dehli , I draw a straight line THROUGH THE EARTH - as they were two points in space. How can I calculate that angle from say New York to New Dehli if I was to draw a straight line through the surface of the earth . What kind of mathematical calculation/formula would be involved in order to do that ?

Answer 1

Rhumb Line Navigation

Rhumb lines or loxodromes are tracks of constant true course. With the exception of meridians and the equator, they are not the same as great circles. They are not very useful approaching either pole, where they become tightly wound spirals. The formulae below fail if any point actually is a pole.

East-West rhumb lines are special. They follow the latitude parallels and form a closed curve. Other rhumb lines extend from pole-to-pole, encircling each pole an infinite number of times. Despite this, they have a finite length given by pi/abs(cos(tc)) (in our angular units, multiply by the radius of the earth to get it in distance units).

When two points (lat1,lon1), (lat2,lon2) are connected by a rhumb line with true course tc :

 lon2-lon1=-tan(tc)*(log((1+sin(lat2))/cos(lat2))-
                     log((1+sin(lat1))/cos(lat1))) 
          =-tan(tc)*(log((1+tan(lat2/2))/(1-tan(lat2/2)))-
                     log((1+tan(lat1/2))/(1-tan(lat1/2))))
          =-tan(tc)*(log(tan(lat2/2+pi/4)/tan(lat1/2+pi/4)))

(logs are "natural" logarithms to the base e.)

The true course between the points is given by:

tc= mod(atan2(lon1-lon2,log(tan(lat2/2+pi/4)/tan(lat1/2+pi/4))),2*pi) The dist, d between the points is given by:

     if (abs(lat2-lat1) < sqrt(TOL)){
         q=cos(lat1)
     } else {
         q= (lat2-lat1)/log(tan(lat2/2+pi/4)/tan(lat1/2+pi/4))
     }
     d=sqrt((lat2-lat1)^2+ q^2*(lon2-lon1)^2)

This formula fails if the rhumb line in question crosses the 180 E/W meridian. Allowing this as a possibility, the true course tc, and distance d, for the shortest rhumb line connecting two points is given by:

dlon_W=mod(lon2-lon1,2*pi)
  dlon_E=mod(lon1-lon2,2*pi)
  dphi=log(tan(lat2/2+pi/4)/tan(lat1/2+pi/4))
  if (abs(lat2-lat1) < sqrt(TOL)){
     q=cos(lat1)
  } else {
     q= (lat2-lat1)/dphi
  }
  if (dlon_W < dlon_E){// Westerly rhumb line is the shortest
      tc=mod(atan2(-dlon_W,dphi),2*pi)
      d= sqrt(q^2*dlon_W^2 + (lat2-lat1)^2)
  } else{
      tc=mod(atan2(dlon_E,dphi),2*pi)
      d= sqrt(q^2*dlon_E^2 + (lat2-lat1)^2)
      }

See http://williams.best.vwh.net/avform.htm#Rhumb