Name

Areas used

Central Latitude meridian(s) of origin Various

CM Scale Factor

Zone width

False False Easting at Northing at origin origin Various

Transverse Various, Mercator world wide

Various Various

Usually less than Various 6* 0m

Transverse Mercator 2* intervals South Africa south E of 11*E oriented 6* intervals* UTM North World wide E & W of 3* hemisphere E&W 6* intervals UTM South World wide E & W of 3* hemisphere E&W

0*

1.000000 2*

0m

Always 0* Always 0*

Always 0.9996 Always 0.9996

Always 500000m 6* Always 500000m 6* Usually less than 6*, often less than 4* 6*

0m

10000000m

GaussKruger

Former Various, USSR Usually Usually Yugoslavia, according to 0* 1.000000 Germany, S. area of cover America Italy Various Various 0.9996

Various but often 500000 Various prefixed by zone number Various 0m

Gauss Boaga

The most familiar and commonly used Transverse Mercator is the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) whose natural origin lies on the equator. However, some territories use a Transverse Mercator with a natural origin at a latitude closer to that territory. In Epicentre the coordinate transformation method is the same for all forms of the Transverse Mercator projection. The formulas to derive the projected Easting and Northing coordinates are in the form of a series as follows:
Easting, E = 58e'2)A5/120] Northing, N = where FE + k0*[A + (1 - T + C)A3/6 + (5 - 18T + T2 + 72C FN + k0{M - M0 + *tan*[A2/2 + (5 - T + 9C + 4C2)A4/24 + (61 - 58T + T2 + 600C - 330e'2)A6/720]}

T = tan2* C = e2 cos2*/(1 - e2) = e'2 cos2* A = (* - *0)cos*, with * and *0 in radians M = a[(1 - e2/4 - 3e4/64 - 5e6/256 -....)* - (3e2/8 + 3e4/32 + 45e6/1024+....)sin2*

+ (15e4/256 + 45e6/1024 +.....)sin4* - (35e6/3072 + ....)sin6* + .....] with * in radians and M0 for *0, the latitude of the origin, derived in the same way.

The reverse formulas to convert Easting and Northing projected coordinates to latitude and longitude are:
* = *1 - (*1tan*1/*1)[D2/2 - (5 + 3T1 + 10C1 - 4C12 - 9e'2)D4/24 + (61 + 90T1 + 298C1 + 45T12 - 252e'2 - 3C12)D6/720] * = *0 + [D - (1 + 2T1 + C1)D3/6 + (5 - 2C1 + 28T1 - 3C12 + 8e'2 + 24T12)D5/120] / cos*1 where *1 may be found as for the Cassini projection from: *1 = *1 + (3e1/2 - 27e13/32 +.....)sin2*1 + (21e12/16 -55e14/32 + ....)sin4*1 + (151e13/96 +.....)sin6*1 + (1097e14/512 - ....)sin8*1 + ...... and where e1 = [1- (1 - e2)1/2]/[1 + (1 - e2)1/2] *1 = M1/[a(1 - e2/4 - 3e4/64 - 5e6/256 - ....)] M1 = M0 + (N - FN)/k0 T1 = tan2*1 C1 = e'2cos2*1 D = (E - FE)/(*1k0), with *1 = * for *1

For areas south of the equator the value of latitude * will be negative and the formulas above, to compute the E and N, will automatically result in the correct values. Note that the false northings of the origin, if the equator, will need to be large to avoid negative northings and for the UTM projection is in fact 10,000,000m.

The map above shows how the NATO UTM system divides the earth into 60 longitude zones, each six degrees wide. The numbering begins at Zone 1 at 180 degrees west and proceeds eastward. To find the grid zone for any longitude:
y y y

Treat west longitude as negative and east as positive. Add 180 degrees; this converts the longitude to a number between zero and 360 degrees. Divide by 6 and round up to the next higher number. For example, Green Bay, Wisconsin is at 88 degrees west, or -88 degrees. Adding 180, we get 92 degrees (Green Bay is 92 degrees east of the International Date Line). 92/6 = 15.33, which we round up to 16. So Green Bay is in Zone 16. This information will usually be somewhere on just about every topographic map. Latitude is also divided into zones, but less regularly. Zones are lettered from A at the South Pole to Z at the North. The circle south of 80 degrees is divided into two zones, A and B. Thereafter zones are 8 degrees wide. Zone M is just south of the equator and N is north. Zone T, between 40 and 48 degrees north, includes Green Bay. Zone X, from 72 to 84 degrees north, is 12 degrees wide and zones Y and Z cover the north

polar region north of 84 degrees. I and O are not used because they can be too easily confused with numbers. In the unlikely event you ever have to use the UTM grid on a map of the polar regions, those areas are covered by a different conformal projection called the Polar Stereographic. Since compass directions have little meaning at the poles, one direction on the grid is arbitrarily designated "north-south" and the other "eastwest" regardless of the actual compass direction. The UTM coordinates are called "false northing" and "false easting." Grid North Since meridians converge, the UTM grid coincides exactly with compass directions only along the central meridian of each zone. For Green Bay, in zone 16, that meridian is 87 degrees west. Elsewhere, the grid makes an angle to the meridians, and at the edges of the zone it's pretty noticeable. It's important to note whether azimuths are being plotted with respect to true north (meridians) or grid north (the north-south lines of the grid). This information, along with the direction of magnetic north, is plotted on most topographic maps. Military people, who work with UTM grids all the time, tend to rely on grid north. Scientists in the field, who are more likely to use the UTM grid only for recording locations, might opt to use whatever is most convenient.

100-kilometer Digraphs NATO maps subdivide grid zones into 100-kilometer squares, which are labeled with two-letter designations called digraphs. The actual lettering scheme is complex, but is designed so that the same digraph is not repeated within 15 degrees in any direction. The longitude zones in the UTM system are extremely important because the whole map projection changes at the boundary. The latitude zones are comparatively unimportant because the projection cylinder used in any zone circles the entire globe. They are used principally to give a rough idea of latitude. So digraph letters change at the boundaries of grid zones, but not at latitude zones.

Determining Grid Coordinates

On NATO-style maps, the fundamental unit is the 100square. Imagine that Point X lies .72417 of the way acr the square from west to east, and .43762 of the way u from south to north. The digraph identifier for this squ is DQ.

On many maps, one-kilometer grid squares are printed The one-kilometer grid square containing Point X is sh at lower right. It's .417 of the way across the square fr west to east and .762 of the way from south to north.

We could give the locations of point X accurate to the nearest meter by saying it is at .72417 east, and .43762 north, just like reading Cartesian coordinates. The decimal point is cumbersome and unnecessary, so we omit it. We give the coordinate as 72417 43762, understanding that the first five digits are the fraction of the way across and the second is the fraction of the way up. To specify the location accurate to only ten meters, we would say 7241 4376, understanding that the point is somewhere between .7241 and .7242 of the way across, and somewhere between .4376 and .4377 of the way up. A location accurate to 100 meters would be 724 437, and a location accurate to a kilometer would be 72 43. Do you round? Depends on the application. If you want the best estimate for a given level of accuracy and you don't expect to have to refine it, then probably. If your project supervisor says don't round, then don't (not rounding is the norm in the military). If you want to specify something as being within a box of a certain size, then no. Especially with one-kilometer squares, don't round. One kilometer squares are printed on many maps. Point X above is between 72 and 73 kilometers from the west edge of the grid square, and 43 and 44 kilometers from the bottom. It is in grid square 72 43. Rounding the value 43762 to 44 would put you in the next grid square north.
y

Grid coordinates always have an even number of digits. The first half is the easting or fraction of the way east across the 100-km square, the second is the northing or fraction of the distance north across the square.

y y y y

The number of digits indicates the level of accuracy. Take the number of digits in each portion of the coordinate. Raise 10 to that power and divide 100 km (100,000 meters) by the result to find the level of accuracy. Example: 3 digits. 103=1000. 100,000/1000 = 100. Hence 3 digits for each portion (6 digits overall) means 100meter accuracy. To remove ambiguity, always include the digraph. Point X, to 100-meter accuracy, is at DQ 724 437 In cases where information is being reported to someone far away, it may be necessary to include the zone designators as well Often coordinates are run together, like DQ724437. No problem; simply count the digits and split them in half. Never round 1-kilometer grid locations because the identifier refers to a specific grid box on the map.
About Zones The first zone begins at the International Date Line (180, using the geographic coordinate system). The zones are numbered from west to east, so zone 2 begins at 174W and extends to 168W. The last zone (zone 60) begins at 174E and extends to the International Date Line.

The zones are then further subdivided into an eastern and western half by drawing a line, representing a transverse mercator projection, down the middle of the zone. This line is known as the central meridian and is the only line within the zone that can be drawn between the poles and be perpendicular to the equator (in other words, it is the new equator for the projection and suffers the least amount of distortion). For this reason, vertical grid lines in the UTM system are oriented parallel to the central meridian. The central meridian is also used in setting up the origin for the grid system.

Any point can then be described by its distance east of the origin (its easting value). By definition the Central Meridian is assigned a false easting of 500,000 meters. Any easting value greater than 500,000 meters indicates a point east of the central meridian. Any easting value less than 500,000 meters indicates a point west of the central meridian. Distances (and locations) in the UTM system are measured in meters, and each UTM zone has its own origin for east-west measurements. To eliminate the necessity for using negative numbers to describe a location, the east-west origin is placed 500,000 meters west of the central meridian. This is referred to as the zones false origin. The zone doesn't extend all the way to the false origin. The origin for north-south values depends on whether you are in the northern or southern hemisphere. In the northern hemisphere, the origin is the equator and all distances north (or northings) are measured from the equator. In the southern hemisphere the origin is the south pole and all northings are measured from there. Once again, having separate origins for the northern and southern hemispheres eliminates the need for any negative values. The average circumference of the earth is 40,030,173 meters, meaning that there are 10,007,543 meters of northing in each hemisphere. UTM coordinates are typically given with the zone first, then the easting, then the northing. So, in UTM coordinates, Red Hill is located in zone twelve at 328204 E (easting), 4746040 N (northing). Based on this, you know that you are west of the central meridian in zone twelve and just under halfway between the equator and the north pole. The UTM system may seem a bit confusing at first, mostly because many people have never heard of it, let alone used it. Once youve used it for a little while, however, it becomes an extremely fast and efficient means of finding exact locations and approximating locations on a map. Many topographic maps published in recent years use the UTM coordinate system as the primary grids on the map. On older topographic maps published in the United States, UTM grids are shown along the edges of the map as small blue ticks.

UTM Grid Zones of the World compiled by Alan Morton

There are 60 longitudinal projection zones numbered 1 to 60 starting at 180W. Each of these zones is 6 degrees wide, apart from a few exceptions around Norway and Svalbard. There are 20 latitudinal zones spanning the latitudes 80S to 84N and denoted by the letters C to X, ommitting the letter O. Each of these is 8 degrees south-north, apart from zone X which is 12 degrees south-north. Areas are referenced by quoting the longitudinal zone number, followed by the latitudinal zone letter. For example, the southern end of South America is 19F. Within each longitudinl zone the transverse mercator projection is used to give coordinates (eastings and northings) in metres.

For the eastings, the origin is defined as a point 500,000 metres west of the central meridian of each longitudinal zone, giving an easting of 500,000 metres at the central meridian. For the northings in the northern hemisphere, the origin is defined as the equator. For the northings in the southern hemisphere, the origin is defined as a point 10,000,000 metres south of the equator. The co-ordinates thus derived define a location within a UTM projection zone either north or south of the equator, but because the same co-ordinate system is repeated for each zone and hemisphere, it is necessary to additionally state the UTM longitudinal zone and either the hemisphere or latitudinal zone to define the location uniquely world-wide.
More details about the UTM coordinate system
The Universal Transverse Mercator projection and grid system was adopted by the U.S. Army in 1947 for designating rectangular coordinates on large scale military maps. UTM is currently used by the United States and NATO armed forces. With the advent of inexpensive GPS receivers, many other map users are adopting the UTM grid system for coordinates that are simpler to use than latitude and longitude. The UTM system divides the earth into 60 zones each 6 degrees of longitude wide. These zones define the reference point for UTM grid coordinates within the zone. UTM zones extend from a latitude of 80 S to 84 N. In the polar regions the Universal Polar Stereographic (UPS) grid system is used. UTM zones are numbered 1 through 60, starting at the international date line, longitude 180, and proceeding east. Zone 1 extends from 180 W to 174 W and is centered on 177 W. Each zone is divided into horizontal bands spanning 8 degrees of latitude. These bands are lettered, south to north, beginning at 80 S with the letter C and ending with the letter X at 84 N. The letters I and O are skipped to avoid confusion with the numbers one and zero. The band lettered X spans 12 of latitude. A square grid is superimposed on each zone. It's aligned so that vertical grid lines are parallel to the center of the zone, called the central meridian. UTM grid coordinates are expressed as a distance in meters to the east, referred to as the "easting", and a distance in meters to the north, referred to as the "northing".

Eastings UTM easting coordinates are referenced to the center line of the zone known as the central meridian. The central meridian is assigned an easting value of 500,000 meters East. Since this 500,000m value is arbitrarily assigned, eastings are sometimes referred to as "false eastings" An easting of zero will never occur, since a 6 wide zone is never more than 674,000 meters wide. Minimum and maximum easting values are: 160,000 mE and 834,000 mE at the equator 465,000 mE and 515,000 mE at 84 N Northings UTM northing coordinates are measured relative to the equator. For locations north of the equator the equator is assigned the northing value of 0 meters North. To avoid negative numbers, locations south of the equator are made with the equator assigned a value of 10,000,000 meters North. Some UTM northing values are valid both north and south of the equator. In order to avoid confusion the full coordinate needs to specify if the location is north or south of the equator. Usually this is done by including the letter for the latitude band. If this is your first exposure to the UTM coordinate system you may find the layout of zones to be confusing. In most land navigation situations the area of interest is much smaller than a zone. The notion of a zone falls away and we are left with a simple rectangular coordinate system to use with our large scale maps. Frequently, in land navigation, the zone information and the digits representing 1,000,000m, and 100,000m are dropped. The 1m, 10m and 100m digits are used only to the extent of accuracy

desired. Note that it's the smaller digits that are dropped in the notation used by the USGS on the edges of their maps. For example 4282000 mN. becomes 82. Because pilots and sailors navigate over much greater distances they still favor the latitude longitude coordinate system.

BRIEF AND VERY IMPORTANT You can call it summary

Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM)

y y

y y y y y y y

Projection: Transverse Mercator (Gauss-Krger type) in zones 6 wide. Longitude of Origin: Central meridian (CM) of each projection zone (3, 9, 15, 21, 27, 33, 39, 45, 51, 57, 63, 69, 75, 81, 87, 93, 99, 105, 111, 117, 123, 129, 135, 141, 147, 153, 159, 165, 171, 177, E and W). Latitude of Origin: 0 (the Equator). Unit: Meter. False Northing: 0 meters at the Equator for the Northern Hemisphere; 10,000,000 meters at the Equator for the Southern Hemisphere. False Easting: 500,000 meters at the CM of each zone. Scale Factor at the Central Meridian: 0.9996. Latitude Limits of System: From 80S to 84N. Limits of Projection Zones: The zones are bounded by meridians, the longitudes of which are multiples of 6 east and west of the prime meridian.

Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinates define two dimensional, horizontal, positions. The sixty UTM zone numbers designate 6 degree wide longitudinal strips extending from 80 degrees South latitude to 84 degrees North latitude. UTM zone characters are letters which designate 8 degree zones extending north and south from the equator. Beginning at 80 south and proceeding northward, twenty bands are lettered C through X, omitting I and O. These bands are all 8 wide except for bond X which is 12 wide (between 72-84 N). There are special UTM zones between 0 degrees and 36 degrees longitude above 72 degrees latitude and a special zone 32 between 56 degrees and 64 degrees north latitude:
y

UTM Zone 32 has been widened to 9 (at the expense of zone 31) between latitudes 56 and 64 (band V) to accommodate southwest Norway. Thus zone 32 it extends westwards to 3E in the North Sea. Similarly, between 72 and 84 (band X), zones 33 and 35 have been widened to 12 to accommodate Svalbard. To compensate for these 12 wide zones, zones 31 and 37 are widened to 9 and zones 32, 34, and 36 are eliminated. Thus the W and E boundaries of zones are 31: 0 - 9 E, 33: 9 - 21 E, 35: 21 - 33 E and 37: 33 - 42 E.