I'm trying to find a way to convert decimal milliseconds to a distance miles, kilometers, or both using the decimal degrees format. For example, consider the following geographic coordinates in decimal degrees format;
37.68455N, 97.34110W
How far away would 37.68456N, 97.34110W be in miles/kilometers from the example coordinate, and how far away would 37.68455N, 97.34111W be in miles/kilometers from the example coordinate?
What I am trying to say is how far a distance is 0.00001 degree of latitude and how far a distance is 0.00001 degree of longitude?
This post is similar to this post, though I am strictly asking the distance of one 0.00001 of a degree in the decimal degrees format in both latitude and longitude. If this post is a duplicate of the aforementioned post then do tell.
It is my understanding that distances in longitude change when getting closer or farther away from the equator. I'd adore an answer that includes how to calculate these distances in longitude at an arbitrary location on the earth's surface.
Along a great circle, like on a line of latitude, $0.00001^\circ=\frac {\pi \cdot 10^{-5}}{180}$ radian. The linear distance is this angle multiplied by the radius of the earth. Using $6378$ km for the earth radius we get $\frac {\pi \cdot 10^{-5}}{180}\cdot 6378 \approx 1.113$ meters. This is the result for north/south differences. For east/west distances you need to multiply by the cosine of the latitude, so at latitude $40^\circ$ it would be $1.113 \cos(40^\circ) \approx 0.853$ meter