The Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) geographic coordinate system

Summary

You're here: MiBSAR's home page :: SAR operations land navigation resource index page :: UTM coordinate system page The Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) geographic coordinate system By Michael A. Neiger Marquette, Michigan © Copyright 2010 - 2022 Thanks in advance for reporting any errors, inaccuracies, or missing information in this book to the author. The Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system — or UTM, as it's commonly referred — is a international locational reference system that depicts the Earth's three-dimensional surface in a relatively-accurate, two-dimensional manner. Global coverage of the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) and Universal Polar Stereographic (UPS) coordinate systems. (Graphic by Michael A. Neiger) The UTM coordinate system allows users to accurately and unambiguously identify geographical locations anywhere on the Earth's surface between the northern limits of North America (defined as 84 degrees north latitude) and the southern limits of continent of Antarctica (defined as 80 degrees south latitude). The remaining north and south polar regions — those areas above 84 degrees north latitude and below 80 degrees south latitude, respectively — are not included in the UTM coordinate system due to extreme projection distortions in the UTM grid as compared to the meridians of longitude. Instead, these two polar regions are covered by the Universal Polar Stereographic, or UPS, coordinate system. Universal Polar Stereographic (UPS) coordinate system: According to the UPS coordinate system, the Northern Hemisphere's polar region extends from 84 degrees north latitude to the North Pole, which is located at 0 degrees north latitude. This region is split in half, with the Western Hemisphere creating Zone Y and the Eastern Hemisphere creating Zone Z. The Southern Hemisphere's polar region extends from 80 degrees south latitude to the South Pole, which is located at 0 degrees south latitude. This region is split in half, with the Western He...