[Techtalk] Data structure for Earth slice data

[Kelly Jones]

What's a good data structure/methodology for representing "slices" of
the Earth?

More specific example: the set of points that are less than 1600 miles
from Chicago AND less than 1000 miles from Albuquerque AND less than
800 miles from Dallas.

Obviously, the description above is one way to represent the data, but
it's not very useful.

I want a representation that will:

 % Tell me if a given latitude/longitude is inside or outside the set.

 % For a given latitude, tell me what longitudes (if any) are inside
 the set. Vica versa for a given longitude.

 % Tell me the area of my set.

 % Make it easy to map the boundary of my set

and so on. Thoughts?

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