Convex hull of (longitude, latitude)-points on the surface of a sphere

Question

Standard convex hull algorithms will not work with (longitude, latitude)-points, because standard algorithms assume you want the hull of a set of Cartesian points. Latitude-long

Answer 1

Instead of considering your data as latitude-longitude data, could you instead consider it in 3D space and apply a 3D convex hull algorithm? You may be able to then find the 2D convex hull you desire by analysing the 3D convex hull.

This returns you to well-travelled algorithms for cartesian convex hulls (albeit in three dimensions) and has no issues with wrap around of the coordinates.

Alternately, there's this paper: Computing the Convex Hull of a Simple Polygon on the Sphere (1996) which seems to deal with some of the same issues that you're dealing with (coordinate wrap-around, etc.)