GPU Pro Tip: Fast Great-Circle Distance Calculation in CUDA C++

Originally published at: https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/fast-great-circle-distance-calculation-cuda-c/

This post demonstrates the practical utility of CUDA’s sinpi() and cospi() functions in the context of distance calculations on earth. With the advent of location-aware and geospatial applications and geographical information systems (GIS), these distance computations have become commonplace. A great circle divides a sphere into two hemispheres. Image: Jhbdel at en.wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0],…