Loxodromic Navigation on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Loxodromic navigation (from
algorithms/ assistance program for loxodromic navigation
Navigation Spherical curves
Loxodromic navigation (from Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
''λοξóς'', oblique, and ''δρóμος'', path) is a method of navigation by following a rhumb line
In navigation, a rhumb line, rhumb (), or loxodrome is an arc crossing all meridians of longitude at the same angle, that is, a path with constant azimuth ( bearing as measured relative to true north).
Navigation on a fixed course (i.e., s ...
, a curve on the surface of the Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
that follows the same angle at the intersection with each meridian. This serves to maintain a steady course in sailing.
Navigating on a spherical surface with a fixed course ( in the figure) results in a spiral path that approaches the North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...
for courses ranging from 270º to 090º and the South Pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the point in the Southern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True South Pole to distinguish ...
for courses from 090º to 270º. On a nautical chart
A nautical chart or hydrographic chart is a graphic representation of a sea region or water body and adjacent coasts or river bank, banks. Depending on the scale (map), scale of the chart, it may show depths of water (bathymetry) and heights of ...
plotted according to the Mercator projection, a loxodromic course appears as a straight line.
Comparison Chart
See also
* Great circle navigation * Windrose network *Map
A map is a symbolic depiction of interrelationships, commonly spatial, between things within a space. A map may be annotated with text and graphics. Like any graphic, a map may be fixed to paper or other durable media, or may be displayed on ...
* Portolan map
* Marine sandglass
* Compass rose
A compass rose or compass star, sometimes called a wind rose or rose of the winds, is a polar coordinates, polar diagram displaying the orientation of the cardinal directions (north, east, south, and west) and their points of the compass, inter ...
* Isoazimuthal The isoazimuth is the locus of the points on the Earth's surface whose initial orthodromic course with respect to a fixed point is constant.
That is, if the initial orthodromic course Z from the starting point ''S'' to the fixed point ''X'' is 8 ...
References
{{reflist *http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=6233256External links
algorithms/ assistance program for loxodromic navigation
Navigation Spherical curves