Random point generation on the surface of a sphere

This function will create a predefined number of points randomly distributed on the surface of a sphere with a given radius.

Usage

rpsphere(n = 1, output = "cartesian", radius = authRadius, origin = c(0, 0, 0))

n: (numeric) The number of random points to be created.
output: (character) The coordinate system of the new points. Can either be "cartesian" for XYZ coordiates or "polar" for spherical, longitude-latitudes coordinates.
radius: (numeric) The radius of the sphere
origin: (numeric) The center of the sphere (XYZ coordinates).

A 3-column (XYZ) or a 2-column (long-lat) numeric matrix.

The function uses a three dimensional gaussian distribution to generate points, which are then projected to the surface of the sphere.

 randomPoints <- rpsphere(2000, output="polar")
# observe latitudinal pattern
 plot(randomPoints, xlim=c(-180, 180), ylim=c(-90, 90))