pg_sphere

pgsphere : spherical objects with useful functions, operators and index support

Overview

Packages

Source

pig build pkg pgsphere;		# build rpm

Install

Make sure PGDG and PIGSTY repo available:

pig repo add pgsql -u   # add both repo and update cache

Install this extension with pig:

pig install pgsphere;		# install via package name, for the active PG version
pig install pg_sphere;		# install by extension name, for the current active PG version

pig install pg_sphere -v 18;   # install for PG 18
pig install pg_sphere -v 17;   # install for PG 17
pig install pg_sphere -v 16;   # install for PG 16
pig install pg_sphere -v 15;   # install for PG 15
pig install pg_sphere -v 14;   # install for PG 14

Create this extension with:

CREATE EXTENSION pg_sphere;

Usage

pg_sphere: spherical geometry data types and operations for PostgreSQL

The pg_sphere extension provides spherical geometry types and operations, useful for astronomy, geospatial, and other applications involving spherical coordinates.

CREATE EXTENSION pg_sphere;

Data Types

• Spherical point (spoint): A location on a sphere (longitude, latitude in radians)
• Spherical circle (scircle): A circular region defined by center and radius
• Spherical line (sline): A great circle segment
• Spherical ellipse (sellipse): An elliptical region on a sphere
• Spherical polygon (spoly): A multi-vertex shape on a sphere
• Spherical path (spath): A connected sequence of points
• Spherical box (sbox): A bounding box on a sphere

Core Operations

• Membership testing (point in polygon, point in circle, etc.)
• Overlap detection between spherical objects
• Circumference and area calculations
• Object rotation using Euler angles for coordinate transformations
• Distance calculations between spherical objects

Index Support

• GiST index: R-tree implementation for efficient spatial queries
• BRIN index: Block range indexing for large datasets

Input/Output

The extension handles input and output in various coordinate formats commonly used in astronomy and geospatial applications, including degrees, radians, and HMS/DMS notation.

-- Create a spherical point (RA, Dec)
SELECT spoint '(10.25d, 45.5d)';

-- Create a spherical circle (center, radius)
SELECT scircle '<(10.25d, 45.5d), 1d>';

-- Check containment
SELECT spoint '(10.25d, 45.5d)' @ scircle '<(10d, 45d), 2d>';