To measure around the faster but less accurate sphere, use ST_Area(geog,false).
</para>
<para>Enhanced: 2.0.0 - support for 2D polyhedral surfaces was introduced.</para>
- <para>Enhanced: 2.2.0 - measurement on spheroid performed with GeographicLib for improved accuracy and robustness.</para>
+ <para>Enhanced: 2.2.0 - measurement on spheroid performed with GeographicLib for improved accuracy and robustness. Requires Proj >= 4.9.0 to take advantage of the new feature.</para>
<para>&sfs_compliant;</para>
<para>&sqlmm_compliant; SQL-MM 3: 8.1.2, 9.5.3</para>
<para>&P_support;</para>
<para>Availability: 1.1.0</para>
<para>Enhanced: 2.0.0 support for geography was introduced.</para>
- <para>Enhanced: 2.2.0 measurement on spheroid performed with GeographicLib for improved accuracy and robustness.</para>
+ <para>Enhanced: 2.2.0 measurement on spheroid performed with GeographicLib for improved accuracy and robustness. Requires Proj >= 4.9.0 to take advantage of the new feature.</para>
<para>Azimuth is especially useful in conjunction with ST_Translate for shifting an object along its perpendicular axis. See
upgis_lineshift <ulink url="http://trac.osgeo.org/postgis/wiki/UsersWikiplpgsqlfunctions">Plpgsqlfunctions PostGIS wiki section</ulink> for example of this.</para>
</refsection>
<para>Availability: 1.5.0 geography support was introduced in 1.5. Speed improvements for planar to better handle large or many vertex geometries</para>
<para>Enhanced: 2.1.0 improved speed for geography. See <ulink url="http://boundlessgeo.com/2012/07/making-geography-faster/">Making Geography faster</ulink> for details.</para>
<para>Enhanced: 2.1.0 - support for curved geometries was introduced.</para>
- <para>Enhanced: 2.2.0 - measurement on spheroid performed with GeographicLib for improved accuracy and robustness.</para>
+ <para>Enhanced: 2.2.0 - measurement on spheroid performed with GeographicLib for improved accuracy and robustness. Requires Proj >= 4.9.0 to take advantage of the new feature.</para>
</refsection>
<refsection>
<programlisting>-- same as geometry example but note units in meters - use sphere for slightly faster less accurate
SELECT ST_Distance(gg1, gg2) As spheroid_dist, ST_Distance(gg1, gg2, false) As sphere_dist
FROM (SELECT
- ST_GeographyFromText('SRID=4326;POINT(-72.1235 42.3521)') As gg1,
- ST_GeographyFromText('SRID=4326;LINESTRING(-72.1260 42.45, -72.123 42.1546)') As gg2
+ ST_GeogFromText('SRID=4326;POINT(-72.1235 42.3521)') As gg1,
+ ST_GeogFromText('SRID=4326;LINESTRING(-72.1260 42.45, -72.123 42.1546)') As gg2
) As foo ;
spheroid_dist | sphere_dist