Grazing Angle (Earth)

The Grazing Angle calculator computes the angle (ψ) above the Earth's horizon to an object.

INSTRUCTIONS: Choose your preferred units and enter the following:  Earth Grazing Angle

• (R)  This is the range from the ground to the object
• (h)  This is the vertical height of the object above the Geoid.

Grazing Angle: The calculator return the grazing angle (ψ) in degrees.  However this can be automatically converted to other angle units via the pull-down menu.

NOTE: The Grazing Angle can be negative.  This means that the object is below the horizon.

The Math / Science

The Grazing Angle equation^{Signal-to-Noise of a Synthetic Aperture Radar.}

This algorithm use the mean radius of the Earth and h is the height above that.

Earth Model Calculators

• Slant Range using Position Vectors
• Slant Range from Elevation Angle (α)
• Slant Range using Subtended Angle (β)
• Distance to Horizon
• Angle of Satellite Visibility
• Grazing Angle
• XYZ to Latitude, Longitude, Altitude
• Earth WGS-84 Equatorial radius in meters: 6378137.0 m
• Earth WGS-84 Polar radius in meters: 6356752.31424518 m 
• Earth Flattening Factor (WGS-84): 0.00335281066474748071984552861852
• Ellipse flattening factor: F = (Er - Pr)/Er  
• Geocentric to Geodetic Latitude
• Geodetic to Geocentric Latitude

1. ^ Performance Limits for Synthetic Aperture Radar - Second Edition.  Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM.  Printed February 2006.