What the common coordinate systems mean, when to use each, and how to convert between them without errors.
Coordinates describe the same point in many ways. Mixing them up is one of the most common — and costly — field data errors.
Geographic (Lat/Long)
Latitude and longitude in decimal degrees or degrees-minutes-seconds. Universal, but easy to transpose.
UTM
Universal Transverse Mercator divides the world into 60 zones and reports meters east and north — convenient for distance math within a zone.
MGRS
The Military Grid Reference System is a compact alphanumeric grid built on UTM, common in defense and search-and-rescue.
Convert without errors
Always confirm the datum (WGS84 vs a local datum) before converting. CoordView handles 3,000+ EPSG datums and batch-converts entire CSV files.
Tags
#coordinates#UTM#MGRS