Converting longitude/latitude to X/Y coordinate

Question

I created a map using Google Maps API that highlights all Minnesota counties. Basically, I created the county polygons using a set of longitudes/latitudes coordinates. Here\

Answer 1

To convert lat/lon/alt (lat in degrees North, lon in degrees East, alt in meters) to earth centered fixed coordinates (x,y,z), do the following:

double Re = 6378137;
double Rp = 6356752.31424518;

double latrad = lat/180.0*Math.PI;
double lonrad = lon/180.0*Math.PI;

double coslat = Math.cos(latrad);
double sinlat = Math.sin(latrad);
double coslon = Math.cos(lonrad);
double sinlon = Math.sin(lonrad);

double term1 = (Re*Re*coslat)/
  Math.sqrt(Re*Re*coslat*coslat + Rp*Rp*sinlat*sinlat);

double term2 = alt*coslat + term1;

double x=coslon*term2;
double y=sinlon*term2;
double z = alt*sinlat + (Rp*Rp*sinlat)/
  Math.sqrt(Re*Re*coslat*coslat + Rp*Rp*sinlat*sinlat);