Spatial - Get Great Circle Distance
Use to determine shortest distance between two points on the surface of a sphere.
Note
Azure Maps Spatial service retirement
The Azure Maps Spatial service is now deprecated and will be retired on 9/30/25. For more information, see End of Life Announcement of Azure Maps Spatial.
The Get Great Circle Distance
API is an HTTP GET
request that returns the great-circle or shortest distance between two points on the surface of a sphere, measured along the surface of the sphere. This differs from calculating a straight line through the sphere's interior. This method is helpful for estimating travel distances for airplanes by calculating the shortest distance between airports.
GET https://{geography}.atlas.microsoft.com/spatial/greatCircleDistance/json?api-version=2022-08-01&query={query}
URI Parameters
Name | In | Required | Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
format
|
path | True |
Desired format of the response. Only |
|
geography
|
path | True |
string |
Location of the Azure Maps Account. Valid values are us (East US, West Central US, West US 2) and eu (North Europe, West Europe). This parameter is required when a |
api-version
|
query | True |
string |
Version number of Azure Maps API. |
query
|
query | True |
string |
The Coordinates through which the distance is calculated, delimited by a colon. Two coordinates are required. The first one is the source point coordinate and the last is the target point coordinate. For example, 47.622942,122.316456:57.673988,127.121513 |
Request Header
Name | Required | Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|
x-ms-client-id |
string |
Specifies which account is intended for usage in conjunction with the Microsoft Entra ID security model. It represents a unique ID for the Azure Maps account and can be retrieved from the Azure Maps management plane Account API. To use Microsoft Entra ID security in Azure Maps see the following articles for guidance. |
Responses
Name | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
200 OK |
OK |
|
Other Status Codes |
An unexpected error occurred. |
Security
AADToken
These are the Microsoft Entra OAuth 2.0 Flows. When paired with Azure role-based access control it can be used to control access to Azure Maps REST APIs. Azure role-based access controls are used to designate access to one or more Azure Maps resource account or sub-resources. Any user, group, or service principal can be granted access via a built-in role or a custom role composed of one or more permissions to Azure Maps REST APIs.
To implement scenarios, we recommend viewing authentication concepts. In summary, this security definition provides a solution for modeling application(s) via objects capable of access control on specific APIs and scopes.
Notes
- This security definition requires the use of the
x-ms-client-id
header to indicate which Azure Maps resource the application is requesting access to. This can be acquired from the Maps management API.
The Authorization URL
is specific to the Azure public cloud instance. Sovereign clouds have unique Authorization URLs and Microsoft Entra ID configurations.
*
The Azure role-based access control is configured from the Azure management plane via Azure portal, PowerShell, CLI, Azure SDKs, or REST APIs.
*
Usage of the Azure Maps Web SDK allows for configuration based setup of an application for multiple use cases.
- For more information on Microsoft identity platform, see Microsoft identity platform overview.
Type:
oauth2
Flow:
implicit
Authorization URL:
https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/authorize
Scopes
Name | Description |
---|---|
https://atlas.microsoft.com/.default | https://atlas.microsoft.com/.default |
subscription-key
This is a shared key that is provisioned when creating an Azure Maps resource through the Azure management plane via Azure portal, PowerShell, CLI, Azure SDKs, or REST APIs.
With this key, any application is authorized to access all REST APIs. In other words, these can currently be treated as master keys to the account which they are issued for.
For publicly exposed applications, our recommendation is to use server-to-server access of Azure Maps REST APIs where this key can be securely stored.
Type:
apiKey
In:
header
SAS Token
This is a shared access signature token is created from the List SAS operation on the Azure Maps resource through the Azure management plane via Azure portal, PowerShell, CLI, Azure SDKs, or REST APIs.
With this token, any application is authorized to access with Azure role-based access controls and fine-grain control to the expiration, rate, and region(s) of use for the particular token. In other words, the SAS Token can be used to allow applications to control access in a more secured way than the shared key.
For publicly exposed applications, our recommendation is to configure a specific list of allowed origins on the Map account resource to limit rendering abuse and regularly renew the SAS Token.
Type:
apiKey
In:
header
Examples
GetGreatCircleDistance
Sample request
GET https://us.atlas.microsoft.com/spatial/greatCircleDistance/json?api-version=2022-08-01&query=47.622942,-122.316456:47.610378,-122.200676
Sample response
{
"summary": {
"sourcePoint": {
"lat": 47.622942,
"lon": -122.316456
},
"targetPoint": {
"lat": 47.610378,
"lon": -122.200676
}
},
"result": {
"distanceInMeters": 8797.62
}
}
Definitions
Name | Description |
---|---|
Error |
The resource management error additional info. |
Error |
The error detail. |
Error |
Error response |
Great |
This object is returned from a successful Great Circle Distance call |
Great |
Summary object |
Json |
Desired format of the response. Only |
Lat |
A location represented as a latitude and longitude using short names 'lat' & 'lon'. |
Result |
Point In Polygon Result Object |
ErrorAdditionalInfo
The resource management error additional info.
Name | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
info |
object |
The additional info. |
type |
string |
The additional info type. |
ErrorDetail
The error detail.
Name | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
additionalInfo |
The error additional info. |
|
code |
string |
The error code. |
details |
The error details. |
|
message |
string |
The error message. |
target |
string |
The error target. |
ErrorResponse
Error response
Name | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
error |
The error object. |
GreatCircleDistanceResult
This object is returned from a successful Great Circle Distance call
Name | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
result |
Result Object |
|
summary |
Summary object |
GreatCircleDistanceSummary
Summary object
Name | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
sourcePoint |
A location represented as a latitude and longitude using short names 'lat' & 'lon'. |
|
targetPoint |
A location represented as a latitude and longitude using short names 'lat' & 'lon'. |
JsonFormat
Desired format of the response. Only json
format is supported.
Name | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
json |
string |
LatLongPairAbbreviated
A location represented as a latitude and longitude using short names 'lat' & 'lon'.
Name | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
lat |
number |
Latitude property |
lon |
number |
Longitude property |
Result
Point In Polygon Result Object
Name | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
intersectingGeometries |
string[] |
Geometries array |
pointInPolygons |
boolean |
Point In Polygons Property |