I am trying to figure out if a latitude/longitude point is contained within a polygon defined by vertexes that represent points on the earth (also lat/lon's, in clockwise order). This is trivial for polygons that can be mapped to the 2D lat/lon space.
Where this becomes increasingly difficult is circle's (now switching back to 3D) that may go from pole to pole covering half the earth. The translation to lat/lon looks like a sine wave. The 2D point in polygon test no longer applies to this case. Is there an algorithm that exists that solves this problem?
================== Clarifications on comments below: =================== The polygon is defined as (lon, lat) pairs in degrees, i.e., (60, 90), (60, 110), (-30, 110), (-30, 90).
I do have code that implements the ray casting algorithm, and that works. however, certain polygons on the surface of the earth do not translate to closed polygons in the 2D space.