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nativeforks | 1 month ago

Thanks! Currently, MBCompass can show both magnetic north using Android’s sensor fusion and true north (based on WGS84 geodetic coordinates).

Adding a magnetic compensation map sounds like a great fit for improving global accuracy without changing the app’s core goals. Thanks for the suggestion.

discuss

order

jacquesm|1 month ago

YW, there are some pretty compact representations possible of that data but it will come at a considerable expense in computational overhead.

https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/earth-magnetic-model-anom...

Is a good starting point.

xavieralexandre|1 month ago

You are linking to the magnetic anomaly grid, which is primarily intended for geophysical research and modeling local variations.

For a basic compass app, you can rely on the World Magnetic Model (WMM) instead: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/world-magnetic-model

From that, you can pre-compute a low-resolution declination grid. NOAA even provides one here: https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/calculators/magcalc.shtml#i.... That’s only a few KB of data and requires just a simple declination subtraction based on lat/lon, similar to how it’s handled on nautical charts. This works fine as long as you stay away from the poles (and Alaska).