UTM Coordinate System

UTM
Coordinate System
How Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Works
• A UTM zone is a 6° segment of the Earth. Because a circle has 360°, this
means that there are 60 UTM zones on Earth. (360 ÷ 6 = 60), right?
• The Mercator uses an upright cylinder for its map projection. The Transverse Mercator takes a
cylinder and places it on its side (rotates it 90°), as pictured below – which is how the term
“transverse” is derived.
• However, the Universal Transverse Mercator places this cylinder 60 times for each UTM zone.
• This means that all 60 wedges are flattened out with a transverse cylinder. Each time it’s slightly
rotated using a different meridian as a central line.
•
• UTM applies a secant cylinder which intersects the ellipsoid along two small
circles parallel to the central Meridian.
• This means that scale is constant north-south along the Meridians. But scale
varies east-west along parallels.
• The two small circles are 180 kilometers east and west of the central Meridian at
the Equator. The small circles have a scale factor of 1, meaning a distance of 100
meters in the ellipsoid would be the same on the map projection.
• The center line of a UTM grid zone has a scale factor of 0.9996. This means that a
distance of 100 meters on an ellipsoid would be 99.96 meters on a map.
What is a false easting and northing?
• Instead of using latitude and longitude coordinates, each 6° wide UTM zone has a
central meridian of 500,000 meters. This central meridian is an arbitrary value
convenient for avoiding any negative easting coordinates. All easting values east
and west of the central meridian will be positive.
• If you’re in the northern hemisphere, the equator has a northing value of 0 meters.
• In the southern hemisphere, the equator starts at 10,000,000 meters. This is
because all values south of the equator will be positive. This is called a false
northing because y-coordinates in the southern geographic region will avoid
negative values.
• Which UTM zone do you live in? Because you’ll need a bit of a deeper
understanding to specify the position of a point on Earth in that particular UTM
zone.
• For example, UTM Zone 37S will use a false northing with the equator starting at
10 million. The UTM Zone 37N will have the equator start at zero meters.
• If you are given a set of UTM coordinates, you have to know which zone it is in
beforehand because the central meridian is assigned 500,000 meters in each zone.
UTM projection distortions
• The UTM projection minimizes distortion within that zone. So this means
that when you want to show features in several UTM zone, it starts
becoming a poor choice of map projection.
• Distortion is small near the central meridian, and as you move away it
worsens. So this makes it most fitting for narrow regions and not well-
suited for world maps.
• Just like every map projection, the Universal Transverse Mercator has its strength and
weaknesses. It is up to the map maker to determine what projection is most favorable
for its purpose.
• …And the Universal Transverse Mercator was really meant to map features in one
Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinate system is a standard set of map
projections with a central meridian for each six-degree wide UTM zone.
• The transverse Mercator map projection is an adaptation of the standard Mercator
projection which flips the cylinder 90 degrees (transverse).
• The UTM projection flattens the sphere 60 times by shifting the cylinder central
meridian 6° for each zone. This gives cartographers a map to work with always in
meters.
• The Universal Transverse Mercator is horrible for small-scale (less-detailed) maps like
world atlases and perfect for mapping narrow regions UTM zone at a time.
Summary
• There are 60 longitudinal projection zones numbered 1 to 60 starting at 180°W. 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 80°S to 84°N and denoted by the letters C to X, omitting the letter I and 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 longitudinal zone the transverse Mercator projection is used to give co-ordinates (eastings and northings) in meters.
• For the eastings, the origin is defined as a point 500,000 meters west of the central meridian of each longitudinal zone, giving an
easting of 500,000 meters 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 meters 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.

UTM Coordinate System

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