NAME
ll2utm - Convert latitude/longitude geographical coordinates to UTM
coordinates
SYNOPSIS
ll2utm [-L] | [latitude longitude [nad27 | nad83 | wgs84]]
DESCRIPTION
This program uses Redfearn’s formulas to convert a given latitude and
longitude into the equivalent Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM)
coordinates. (This operation is often referred to as projection, since
it projects a curved surface onto a flat plane.) The input latitude
and longitude must be in decimal degrees. Latitudes south of the
equator are negative, and longitudes west of the prime meridian are
negative. UTM is intended for use in the latitude range from 80S to
84N. The program will accept input outside of this range, but will
print a warning message.
The output takes the form of a single line, containing the UTM "x"
value, the UTM "y" value, and the UTM zone, separated by white space.
The "x" value includes the normal 500,000 false easting. The "y" value
includes the normal 10,000,000 false northing, if the point is in the
southern hemisphere. Points in the southern hemisphere are flagged by
making the zone number negative.
If you provide just the "-L" option, the program will print some
license information and exit.
Projections, and inverse projections, depend on defining an ellipsoid
that approximates the shape of the earth (the reference ellipsoid) and
defining reference coordinates (the datum) that allow measurements to
be made. Different choices of the ellipsoid and datum can yield
projections that differ by tens of meters. There are a wide variety of
choices, due to both the historical progression of measurement
technology, and the desire to maximize accuracy over a given region
(such as North America, or one of the United States).
This program defaults to the North American Datum of 1927 (NAD-27) with
the Clarke Ellipsoid of 1866, since these appear to be appropriate for
much of the freely-available data. The data are apparently in the
process of being converted to the Geodetic Reference System 1980
(GRS-80) ellipsoid and NAD-83. If you come across such data, you can
specify "nad83" on the command line. The GTOPO30 data use the World
Geodetic System 1984 (WGS-84) ellipsoid, which can be invoked by
specifying "wgs84" on the command line.
SEE ALSO
The utm2ll(1) command provides the inverse conversion.
Jul 24, 2001