geodetic2aer azimuth when two points are on top of each over

when using geodetic2aer function with the followng parameters: geodetic2aer(lat0,lon0,h,lat0,lon0,h0,spheroid) I receive az which varies with altitude (either h or h0). in this example local AER origin coordinates lat0, lon0 and coordinates of a point lat, lon are the same. altitudes h0 and h are different, i.e. two points are above each over so to speak. What is the meaning of az in this example?

Answer 1

[Manikanta Aditya]

Hi Vasili,

When using the geodetic2aer function with two points that have the same latitude and longitude but different altitudes, the azimuth (az) value can vary with altitude. This is because the azimuth angle is measured clockwise from north and is influenced by the relative positions of the two points in three-dimensional space.

In your example, where the local AER origin coordinates (lat0, lon0) and the coordinates of the point (lat, lon) are the same, but the altitudes (h0 and h) are different, the azimuth represents the direction from the origin to the point of interest. Since the points are directly above each other, the azimuth can be considered undefined or arbitrary because there is no horizontal displacement between the points.

I hope this clarifies your query.

[vasili]

Thank you. So basically this function returns random untrue values of azimuth in that case

[Manikanta Aditya]

Yep @vasili