accurate compass navigation
The Earth's magnetic field is generated by electric currents in the molten outer core and affected by local variations in the mantle and crust. Above the surface, fluctuations of magnetospheric and ionospheric origin are increasingly significant and are impacted by the solar wind. Humans have been using these fields to navigate for centuries. They are still used today, including by autonomous systems in GPS-denied areas.
heading corrections over web api
Understanding geomagnetic fields is critical to compass navigation. The direction of magnetic north does not correspond to the geographic north, and a correction (magnetic declination or variation) is required to convert from one to the other.
The direction of the magnetic field vector varies with position and time (the Earth's magnetic poles shift over time). The World Magnetic Model (WMM) calculates magnetic declination (variation), inclination, and intensity at a time and location. We provide access via highly scalable web API infrastructure. Cache a look-up-table for an area of operations for offline navigation.
