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Michael Schultz
Cindy Gordon
Stan Hayes
6/6/2005 1:41:15 PM
UTM to Lat/Long

Cindy As we discussed, I spent a few minutes collecting information on converting UTM coordinates to Latitude/Longitude coordinates. I
was unable to find the Concord program that Dick mentioned, but did find several other websites that had conversion programs
available (ranging in complexity from very simple to fairly complex). Please let me know if this is the type of information you were
hoping for. If requested, we could develop a more tutorial-type email, but that would assume the reader had no experience with
coordinate systems.
Conversion Programs
A fairly simple and a more complex web-based conversion tool developed by an individual
http://home.hiwaay.net/~taylorc/toolbox/geography/geoutm.html
http://home.hiwaay.net/~taylorc/toolbox/geodesy/datumtrans/
A web-based conversion program developed by Canada's Geodetic survey division
http://www.geod.nrcan.gc.ca/index_e/online_apps_e/appGSRUG_e/utm_e.html
A web-based conversion program developed by the US National Geodetic Survey Information Services Branch
http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/TOOLS/utm.html
A more complex program that can be downloaded and run off of personal computers
http://earth-info.nga.mil/GandG/geotrans/index.html
I did some trial conversions using each program and they all returned the same coordinates (within five meters or so).

Useful Information
To convert from UTM to Lat/Long, you must know which UTM zone you are in. Two pictures are attached to this email. The first
(UTM map for US.gif) depicts the UTM zones for the continental US and the second (utm_zones_world.gif) depicts the world-wide
UTM zones.
<<UTM map for US.gif>> <<utm_zones_world.gif>>
In addition, the datum must be known. The datum is a reference to which system was used to model or approximate the surface of the
earth. Different ellipsoids have been used at different times. The most common is the modern GRS1980 ellipsoid which is the basis
for the North American Datum 1983 (NAD83) projection. If no other data exists, you can assume that NAD83 is the correct datum.
(NAD83 is equivalent to GRS80 which is equivalent to WGS84). An older datum is the North American Datum of 1923 (NAD23)
which is based on the Clarke 1866 spheroid. This datum is rarely used today.
Finally, a it is useful to know that the longitudinal reference system commonly uses a negative value to indicate west. Thus,
122.44623 degrees west is equivalent to
-122.44623 degrees.
Please let me know if you have any questions or if you would like me to lookup or add any other information.
Mike

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______________________________________
Michael Schultz
Manager
ENVIRON International Corporation
6001 Shellmound St., Suite #700
Emeryville, CA 94608
(510) 655-7400 x2550
FAX (510) 655-9517
email: mschultz@environcorp.com
http://www.environcorp.com/

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