Geodetic Line at Constant Altitude above the Ellipsoid

TL;DR

This paper derives a method to compute shortest paths on a constant altitude surface above an ellipsoid, extending geodesic calculations to include elevation effects using a simplified integral approach.

Contribution

It introduces a novel reduction of the geodesic problem at constant altitude to a single integral, incorporating elevation into geodesic calculations on ellipsoids.

Findings

Derived differential equations for geodesics at constant altitude

Reduced the problem to a single integral using Taylor expansion

Provides a practical approach for geodesic calculations with elevation

Abstract

The two-dimensional surface of a bi-axial ellipsoid is characterized by the lengths of its major and minor axes. Longitude and latitude span an angular coordinate system across. We consider the egg-shaped surface of constant altitude above (or below) the ellipsoid surface, and compute the geodetic lines - lines of minimum Euclidean length - within this surface which connect two points of fixed coordinates. This addresses the common "inverse" problem of geodesics generalized to non-zero elevations. The system of differential equations which couples the two angular coordinates along the trajectory is reduced to a single integral, which is handled by Taylor expansion up to fourth power in the eccentricity.