UK Longest Unobstructed View

Finding the longest unobstructed great circle view from the UK coastline to any landmass on Earth.

Scripts

Route Finding

find_longest_view_systematic.py - Main analysis script

• Systematically scans the entire UK coastline
• Uses two-phase ray-casting for efficiency
• Configurable spacing and check intervals
• Outputs timestamped JSON results

# Run with custom parameters
python find_longest_view_systematic.py --spacing 0.1 --check-interval 250 --threshold 7000

# Or use the logging wrapper
./run_with_log.sh --spacing 0.1 --check-interval 250 --threshold 7000

Parameters:

• --spacing: Coastline sampling interval in km (default: 100.0)
• --check-interval: Fine-grain checking interval in meters (default: 50)
• --threshold: Minimum distance threshold in km (default: 5000.0)

Visualizations

cartopy_viz.py - High-quality publication map

• Robinson projection with Natural Earth raster relief
• Inset showing start point detail
• Info box with coordinates and distance
• 300 DPI output suitable for printing

python cartopy_viz.py

check_route_viz.py - Interactive verification map

• Folium-based interactive HTML map
• Shows top 10 longest views with markers
• Great circle routes for each view
• Click markers for detailed information

python check_route_viz.py

run_with_log.sh - Wrapper for timestamped logging

• Automatically adds timestamps to each output line
• Saves to dated log files
• Useful for monitoring long-running analyses

Installation

# Create virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

How It Works

1. Load Data: Natural Earth 10m coastline and country polygons
2. Sample Coastline: Generate points at specified intervals along UK coast
3. Calculate Directions: Determine perpendicular outward direction from each point
4. Two-Phase Checking:
   • Phase 1: Coarse check every 100km to quickly filter paths < threshold
   • Phase 2: Fine-grain check at specified intervals for promising paths
5. Find Longest: Identify the maximum unobstructed distance

Output Files

Results are saved with descriptive filenames including parameters:

longest_view_result_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_spacingXkm_checkYm_threshZkm.json

Each result file contains:

• Longest view details (coordinates, distance, azimuth, destination)
• Top 10 views for reference
• Metadata (parameters, processing time, cores used)