Spherical Path Comparison (spComparison) Package is developed for quantitatively measuring similarity of spherical paths with spatial uncertainties, particularly the paleomagnetic apparent polar wander paths (APWPs) of tectonic plates. It is powered by PmagPy (https://github.com/PmagPy/PmagPy), GMT (https://www.generic-mapping-tools.org/) and bc (https://www.gnu.org/software/bc/). Read on for more details in Chapter 2 of my thesis: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1636940129241046
Please use demo.ipynb (openable by Jupyter Notebook https://jupyter.org/) to see a few examples of measuring APWP similarity using the spComparison package (stored in the "spComparison" folder).
Please refer to the README.txt file in the "data" folder for more details about the data.
Compared with the algorithm about segment (seg) angle difference in the function "spa_angpre_len_dif", the old-version orientation change for each seg in the function "spa_ang1st_len_dif" was actually the difference between each seg and always the 1st seg. However, after seeing the calculated results we realized that the definition of the difference between each seg and the 1st seg is far more complicated than expected in terms of spherical surface geometry, particularly for those seg far from the 1st seg. Because of this complexity, another disadvantage of this function is its long calculating time, which is about 5 times of the time the presently used solution (spa_angpre_len_dif) consumes. The calculation for seg angle difference in the function "spa_angpre_len_dif" is described in detail in the section 2.2.4.2 of my thesis: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1636940129241046. The orientation change is the difference between its previous seg and itself.
- Fu, C. (2021). Global Paleomagnetic Data Analysis: Improved Methods of Reconstructing Plate Motions Using Paleomagnetic Data [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1636940129241046
APA Style (7th edition)
- Fu, Chenjian. Global Paleomagnetic Data Analysis: Improved Methods of Reconstructing Plate Motions Using Paleomagnetic Data. 2021. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1636940129241046.
MLA Style (8th edition)
- Fu, Chenjian. "Global Paleomagnetic Data Analysis: Improved Methods of Reconstructing Plate Motions Using Paleomagnetic Data." Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1636940129241046
Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)