Polar singularities

Global

Near the North/South poles, longitude lines converge to a point; planar buffering and equirectangular projections badly distort cell shape and area right at the pole cells.

Detection

Cell centroid or boundary latitude within a few degrees of ±90°.

Mitigation

  • Use geodesic (great-circle) buffering, never planar, near poles
  • Flag and manually review any cell whose boundary vertices approach ±90° latitude

Affected conversions

  • H3exact polygon
  • H3inscribed circle
  • H3circumscribed circle
  • Point+radiusH3