What is WiS working on?

After learning Cocoa,
started learning WebObject to create a E-commerce.
It's a lot of new things to learn,
but I promise to make a link to the e-shop

Tintin in Peru exhibition

A program to drive lamps and music.
The program runs at the exhibition
With Tintin in Peru
in Brussels

WiS has an e-mail ;-)

send us an e-mail if you found

• an error,
• a bug,
• a typo,
• an horror,
• an inconsistency;

when you have

• a suggestion,
• a question,
• a remark,
• a web page to be linked from here,
• a job for us,

or when you want

• to know more about the applets
• to congratulate us,
• to correct our (bad) English
• to encourage us,
• us to add some more conversions applets.

Used Terms & Definitions

WGS84 position expressed as latitude and longitude

• are inputed in String
• are computed in Deg, Naut. and DMS
• counted from Greenwich,
• relative to the World Geodetic Survey 1984 datum

ED50 position expressed as latitude and longitude

• are inputed in String
• are computed in Deg, Naut. and DMS
• counted from Greenwich,
• relative to the European Datum 1950 datum

CH1903 position expressed as latitude and longitude

• are inputed in String
• are computed in Deg, Naut. and DMS
• counted from Greenwich,
• relative to the BESSEL 1841 ellipsoid
• are used in Switzerland

UTM position expressed as easting, northing and zone

• are inputed in meters
• are computed in meters
• cartesian coordinates with a false origin,
• (here)relative to the European Datum 1950 datum
• means Universal Transverse Mercator representation
• are valid between 84°N and 80°S.

Paris position expressed as latitude and longitude

• are inputed in gradients
• are computed gradients
• counted from Paris,
• relative to the Nouvelle Triangulation de la France datum
• see French IGN site: Institut Géographique National (very nice)

Lambert (F) position expressed as X, Y and zone

• are inputed in meters
• are computed in meters
• cartesian coordinates with a false origin,
• relative to the Nouvelle Triangulation de la France datum
• used in continental France and Corse
• see French IGN site: Institut Géographique National (very nice)

Lambert (B)position expressed as X and Y

• stands for Lambert on the belgian datum, also known as the Lambert 72
• are inputed in meters
• are computed in meters
• cartesian coordinates with a false origin,
• relative to the Belgian Geodetic Survey 1972 datum
• is used on the Belgian IGN Map (1/50000)
• is used on the Belgian IGN Atlas (1/100000)

SWISS Grid position expressed as Y (Easting) and X (Northing) -updated-

• are inputed in meters
• are computed in meters
• cartesian coordinates with a false origin,
• relative to the CH1903 datum
• used on the Swiss Maps
• note that the coordinates are expressed in (Y, X) and not (X, Y) as usual.

MGRS position is derived from UTM

• each UTM area is divided is squares of 100 km by 100 km and designated by two letters (eg. 31ULS means the LS square in the 31U area).
• are (mostly) computed in hm (eg 31ULS240323 church of Bierbeek) [MGRS hectometric]
• but also in km (eg 31ULS2432) [MGRS kilometric]
• or 10x km (eg 31ULS23)
• or 10x m (eg 31ULS24073235)
• or m (eg 31ULS2407232354) [MGRS metric]
• means Military Grid Reference System.

LUREF position expressed as easting and northing

• means Luxemburg Reference Frame
• are inputed in meters
• are computed in meters
• cartesian coordinates with a false origin,
• relative to the Luxemburg datum
• used on the Luxemburgs Maps

LUREFgeo position expressed as latitude and longitude

• means Luxemburg Reference Frame geographic
• are inputed in String
• are computed in Deg, Naut. and DMS
• counted from Greenwich,
• relative to the Luxemburg datum
• used on the Luxemburgs Maps

NLRD position expressed as X and Y

• means Rijksdriehoeksmeting Nederland.
• are inputed in meters
• are computed in meters
• cartesian coordinates with a false origin,
• relative to the Bessel1842 datum
• used on the maps edited by Topografische Dienst (Emmen)

NLgeo position expressed as latitude and longitude

• means geographic coordinates of the Netherlands.
• are inputed in String
• are computed in Deg, Naut. and DMS
• counted from Greenwich,
• relative to the Bessel1842 datum
• used on the maps edited by Topografische Dienst (Emmen)

GEOREF position is derived from Latitude and Longitude

• means World Geographic Reference System
• is used in aircraft navigation

String

• stands for latitude or longitude angles expessed as
  • degrees (50d)
  • decimal degrees(50.5d)
  • degrees and minutes (50d30m)
  • degrees and decimal minutes (50d30.1m)
  • degrees, minutes and seconds (50d30m6s)
  • degrees, minutes and decimal seconds (50d30m6.9s)
  • degrees, minutes, seconds and thousands (50d30m6s900)
  • degrees, minutes, seconds and decimal thousands (50d30m6s900.15)
• started with n, N, e, E, + or nothing means North (for latitude) or East (longitude),
• ... or with s, S, w, W, - means South(for latitude) or West (longitude)
• accept . or , for for decimal separator
• d or D follows the value of degrees
• m or M follows the value of minutes
• s or S follows the value of seconds
• a decimal value in the input terminates it, e.g. 50d30.5m6s is read as 50°30'30"
• blanks are skipped

Deg

• means angles expessed as decimal degrees
• popular in Computations
• + means East or North
• - means West or South
• looks likes +DDD.dddddd
• example +4.789654

Naut.

• means angles expessed as degrees and decimal minutes
• popular in the Nautical World
• + means East or North
• - means West or South
• looks likes E DDDºMM.ddd'
• example E 4º47.38'

DMS

• means angles expessed as degrees, minutes and decimal seconds
• + means East or North
• - means West or South
• looks likes E DDDºMM' SS.ddd"
• example E 4º47'22.8"

Gradients

• means angles expressed as decimal gradients
• gr in the usual abbreviation
• there are 400 gr in a circle of 360º
• + means East or North
• - means West or South

Cartesian Coordinates systems

• are the usual coordinate system with perpendicular axes and the same units all over the axes.
• the point were the axes cross is called the origin.
• the main advantage is that you can compute (cartesian) distance between two points as the square root of the sum of the squared differences of the coordinates :

False origin is

• said when the coordinates of the origin of the cartesian system are different of (0; 0)
• example: for UTM the axes (equator and central meridian) cross at (0; 500000.) in the northern hemisphere and at (10000000. ; 500000.) below the equator.

hm is

• 100 meter
• is short for hectometer

Maps from the Applets

After computing the position from the input data, you can have a look to maps on an external site.

Links :

Private sites

• Oddens's Bookmarks
• Coordinate Systems Overview by Peter H. Dana (updated)
• GPSy (Karen Nakamura @ Global Mapping Systems)

Official sites

• National Geographical Institute (Belgium)
• Institut Géographique National (France).
• Administration du Cadastre et de la Topographie (G-D of Luxemburg).
• Bundesamt fuer Kartographie und Geodaesie (Germany).
• Federal Office of Topography (Swiss)

Books :

"Map Projections - A Reference Manual"
Lev M. Bugayevskiy and John P. Snyder
Ed Taylor & Francis 1995
ISBN 0748403043

This is certainly the must have book for those who want to approach map projections is a mathematical way. This books includes a lot a Russian example of projections that are not so easy to find. The purpose of the book is not to be a kind of cookbook. The subtitle is clear it is a Reference Book.

"Systèmes de référence et Formules de transformation en usage en Belgique"
edited by IGN–NGI (Belgium)

All you wanted to know about coordinates used in Belgium. Contains very usefull examples of Lambert, UTM et geographic coordinates. Many examples are completely worked out. There is a French version and a Dutch version.