Small Circles and Ellipses

Define small circles and ellipses

A small circle is the intersection of a plane with the surface of a sphere. An ellipse is the intersection of a plane with the surface of a cone. Use these functions to generate the coordinates of ellipses and small circles and to find the intersection points of small circles.

Functions

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Create Small Circles and Ellipses

Represent Using Shape Objects

aoicircle Define circular area of interest (Since R2024b)

Represent Using Coordinates

`ellipse1`	Geographic ellipse from center, semimajor axis, eccentricity, and azimuth
`scircle1`	Small circle from center and radius
`scircle2`	Small circle from center and point on perimeter
`gc2sc`	Center and radius of great circle
`scircleg`	Add small circle to `axesm`-based map using mouse

Find Intersection Points

`gcxsc`	Intersection points for great and small circle pairs
`scxsc`	Intersection points for pairs of small circles

Topics

Generate Small Circles
This example shows how to generate and display small circles.
Interactively Create Small Circle and Track Annotations on Maps
You can interactively generate geographic line annotations, such as navigational tracks and small circles.