S2 Geometry

S2 Geometry is a system for representing and working with geometric data on a sphere, such as the Earth's surface. Unlike traditional latitude and longitude coordinates, S2 Geometry divides the sphere into a hierarchical structure of cells, making it easy to perform calculations like distance, area, and spatial indexing efficiently.

At its core, S2 Geometry maps the sphere onto a cube, then projects each face of the cube onto a plane. The cube's faces are subdivided recursively into smaller cells, which allows for precise spatial indexing at different levels of detail. This structure is particularly useful for applications like mapping, geolocation, and spatial databases.

S2 Geometry is widely used in systems that need to handle large-scale geographic data, such as Google Maps. It enables fast searches, region queries, and geometric computations, making it a powerful tool for working with the Earth's surface in a scalable way.