由于这是关于这个话题最受欢迎的讨论，我将在这里补充我从2019年底到2020年初的经验。为了补充现有的答案-我的重点是找到一个准确和快速(即向量化)的解决方案。

让我们从这里最常用的答案——哈弗辛方法开始。向量化是很简单的，参见下面python中的例子:

def haversine(lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2):
    """
    Calculate the great circle distance between two points
    on the earth (specified in decimal degrees)

    All args must be of equal length.
    Distances are in meters.
    
    Ref:
    https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29545704/fast-haversine-approximation-python-pandas
    https://ipython.readthedocs.io/en/stable/interactive/magics.html
    """
    Radius = 6.371e6
    lon1, lat1, lon2, lat2 = map(np.radians, [lon1, lat1, lon2, lat2])

    dlon = lon2 - lon1
    dlat = lat2 - lat1

    a = np.sin(dlat/2.0)**2 + np.cos(lat1) * np.cos(lat2) * np.sin(dlon/2.0)**2

    c = 2 * np.arcsin(np.sqrt(a))
    s12 = Radius * c
    
    # initial azimuth in degrees
    y = np.sin(lon2-lon1) * np.cos(lat2)
    x = np.cos(lat1)*np.sin(lat2) - np.sin(lat1)*np.cos(lat2)*np.cos(dlon)
    azi1 = np.arctan2(y, x)*180./math.pi

    return {'s12':s12, 'azi1': azi1}

就精确度而言，它是最不准确的。维基百科在没有任何来源的情况下表示相对偏差平均为0.5%。我的实验显示偏差较小。以下是10万个随机点与我的库的比较，应该精确到毫米级:

np.random.seed(42)
lats1 = np.random.uniform(-90,90,100000)
lons1 = np.random.uniform(-180,180,100000)
lats2 = np.random.uniform(-90,90,100000)
lons2 = np.random.uniform(-180,180,100000)
r1 = inverse(lats1, lons1, lats2, lons2)
r2 = haversine(lats1, lons1, lats2, lons2)
print("Max absolute error: {:4.2f}m".format(np.max(r1['s12']-r2['s12'])))
print("Mean absolute error: {:4.2f}m".format(np.mean(r1['s12']-r2['s12'])))
print("Max relative error: {:4.2f}%".format(np.max((r2['s12']/r1['s12']-1)*100)))
print("Mean relative error: {:4.2f}%".format(np.mean((r2['s12']/r1['s12']-1)*100)))

输出:

Max absolute error: 26671.47m
Mean absolute error: -2499.84m
Max relative error: 0.55%
Mean relative error: -0.02%

因此，在10万对随机坐标上，平均偏差为2.5km，这可能对大多数情况都是好的。

下一个选择是Vincenty公式，精确到毫米，这取决于收敛标准，也可以向量化。它确实有在对跖点附近收敛的问题。你可以通过放宽收敛标准使其收敛于这些点，但准确度会下降到0.25%甚至更多。在对映点之外，Vincenty将提供与地理库相近的结果，相对误差小于1。平均是E-6。

这里提到的Geographiclib实际上是当前的黄金标准。它有几个实现，而且相当快，特别是如果你使用的是c++版本。

Now, if you are planning to use Python for anything above 10k points I'd suggest to consider my vectorized implementation. I created a geovectorslib library with vectorized Vincenty routine for my own needs, which uses Geographiclib as fallback for near antipodal points. Below is the comparison vs Geographiclib for 100k points. As you can see it provides up to 20x improvement for inverse and 100x for direct methods for 100k points and the gap will grow with number of points. Accuracy-wise it will be within 1.e-5 rtol of Georgraphiclib.

Direct method for 100,000 points
94.9 ms ± 25 ms per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1 loop each)
9.79 s ± 1.4 s per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1 loop each)

Inverse method for 100,000 points
1.5 s ± 504 ms per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1 loop each)
24.2 s ± 3.91 s per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1 loop each)

下面是Erlang实现

lat_lng({Lat1, Lon1}=_Point1, {Lat2, Lon2}=_Point2) ->
  P = math:pi() / 180,
  R = 6371, % Radius of Earth in KM
  A = 0.5 - math:cos((Lat2 - Lat1) * P) / 2 +
    math:cos(Lat1 * P) * math:cos(Lat2 * P) * (1 - math:cos((Lon2 - Lon1) * P))/2,
  R * 2 * math:asin(math:sqrt(A)).

下面是postgres SQL中的一个示例(以公里为单位，为英里版本，将1.609344替换为0.8684版本)

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.geodistance(alat float, alng float, blat  

float, blng  float)
  RETURNS float AS
$BODY$
DECLARE
    v_distance float;
BEGIN

    v_distance = asin( sqrt(
            sin(radians(blat-alat)/2)^2 
                + (
                    (sin(radians(blng-alng)/2)^2) *
                    cos(radians(alat)) *
                    cos(radians(blat))
                )
          )
        ) * cast('7926.3352' as float) * cast('1.609344' as float) ;


    RETURN v_distance;
END 
$BODY$
language plpgsql VOLATILE SECURITY DEFINER;
alter function geodistance(alat float, alng float, blat float, blng float)
owner to postgres;

这是一个简单的PHP函数，它将给出一个非常合理的近似值(误差小于+/-1%)。

<?php
function distance($lat1, $lon1, $lat2, $lon2) {

    $pi80 = M_PI / 180;
    $lat1 *= $pi80;
    $lon1 *= $pi80;
    $lat2 *= $pi80;
    $lon2 *= $pi80;

    $r = 6372.797; // mean radius of Earth in km
    $dlat = $lat2 - $lat1;
    $dlon = $lon2 - $lon1;
    $a = sin($dlat / 2) * sin($dlat / 2) + cos($lat1) * cos($lat2) * sin($dlon / 2) * sin($dlon / 2);
    $c = 2 * atan2(sqrt($a), sqrt(1 - $a));
    $km = $r * $c;

    //echo '<br/>'.$km;
    return $km;
}
?>

如前所述;地球不是一个球体。它就像马克·麦奎尔决定用来练习的一个很旧很旧的棒球——到处都是凹痕和凸起。简单的计算(像这样)把它当作一个球体。

不同的方法或多或少的精确取决于你在这个不规则的卵形上的位置以及你的点之间的距离(它们越近，绝对误差范围就越小)。你的期望越精确，计算就越复杂。

更多信息:维基百科地理距离

正如指出的那样，精确的计算应该考虑到地球不是一个完美的球体。以下是这里提供的各种算法的一些比较:

geoDistance(50,5,58,3)
Haversine: 899 km
Maymenn: 833 km
Keerthana: 897 km
google.maps.geometry.spherical.computeDistanceBetween(): 900 km

geoDistance(50,5,-58,-3)
Haversine: 12030 km
Maymenn: 11135 km
Keerthana: 10310 km
google.maps.geometry.spherical.computeDistanceBetween(): 12044 km

geoDistance(.05,.005,.058,.003)
Haversine: 0.9169 km
Maymenn: 0.851723 km
Keerthana: 0.917964 km
google.maps.geometry.spherical.computeDistanceBetween(): 0.917964 km

geoDistance(.05,80,.058,80.3)
Haversine: 33.37 km
Maymenn: 33.34 km
Keerthana: 33.40767 km
google.maps.geometry.spherical.computeDistanceBetween(): 33.40770 km

在小范围内，Keerthana的算法似乎与谷歌Maps的算法一致。谷歌Maps似乎没有遵循任何简单的算法，这表明它可能是这里最准确的方法。

不管怎样，这里是Keerthana算法的Javascript实现:

function geoDistance(lat1, lng1, lat2, lng2){
    const a = 6378.137; // equitorial radius in km
    const b = 6356.752; // polar radius in km

    var sq = x => (x*x);
    var sqr = x => Math.sqrt(x);
    var cos = x => Math.cos(x);
    var sin = x => Math.sin(x);
    var radius = lat => sqr((sq(a*a*cos(lat))+sq(b*b*sin(lat)))/(sq(a*cos(lat))+sq(b*sin(lat))));

    lat1 = lat1 * Math.PI / 180;
    lng1 = lng1 * Math.PI / 180;
    lat2 = lat2 * Math.PI / 180;
    lng2 = lng2 * Math.PI / 180;

    var R1 = radius(lat1);
    var x1 = R1*cos(lat1)*cos(lng1);
    var y1 = R1*cos(lat1)*sin(lng1);
    var z1 = R1*sin(lat1);

    var R2 = radius(lat2);
    var x2 = R2*cos(lat2)*cos(lng2);
    var y2 = R2*cos(lat2)*sin(lng2);
    var z2 = R2*sin(lat2);

    return sqr(sq(x1-x2)+sq(y1-y2)+sq(z1-z2));
}

下面是VB的实现。NET，这个实现将根据您传递的Enum值以KM或Miles为单位给您结果。

Public Enum DistanceType
    Miles
    KiloMeters
End Enum

Public Structure Position
    Public Latitude As Double
    Public Longitude As Double
End Structure

Public Class Haversine

    Public Function Distance(Pos1 As Position,
                             Pos2 As Position,
                             DistType As DistanceType) As Double

        Dim R As Double = If((DistType = DistanceType.Miles), 3960, 6371)

        Dim dLat As Double = Me.toRadian(Pos2.Latitude - Pos1.Latitude)

        Dim dLon As Double = Me.toRadian(Pos2.Longitude - Pos1.Longitude)

        Dim a As Double = Math.Sin(dLat / 2) * Math.Sin(dLat / 2) + Math.Cos(Me.toRadian(Pos1.Latitude)) * Math.Cos(Me.toRadian(Pos2.Latitude)) * Math.Sin(dLon / 2) * Math.Sin(dLon / 2)

        Dim c As Double = 2 * Math.Asin(Math.Min(1, Math.Sqrt(a)))

        Dim result As Double = R * c

        Return result

    End Function

    Private Function toRadian(val As Double) As Double

        Return (Math.PI / 180) * val

    End Function

End Class