How a Use te sponta Covering UI ti rare (Ore Vr) How to Use the Spreadsheet for Converting UTM to Latitude and Longitude (Or Vice Versa) Steven Dutch, Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay First-time Visitors: Please visit Site Map and Disclaimer. Use "Back" lo relum here Information on the UTM system Formulas for UTM Conversion ‘Soceadsheet For UTM Conversion General ‘This spreadsheet employs formulas by Charles Karney (2010). The formulas are accurate to nanometers, leven 80 degrees from the central meridian. Excel's precision of 15 digits means that the spreadsheet is accurate to about 0.01 mm. Als, the formulas can blow up at low latitudes beyond 80 degrees from the central meridian, That's far more than sufficient for just about all purposes. Also, consider the accuracy of your data. A degree is about 121,000 meters. Thus, to achieve roughly one- meter accuracy you need coordinates accurate to five decimal slaces. Four places will give you 10 meters, ‘three wil give you 100 meter accuracy. This sa spreadsheet, not an applet or a program. Unlike a textbox in Visual Basic, | do not know of any way ‘to make a cel capable of accepting input and at the same time change its contents in response to another cell, Anything you input into a cell will overwrite any existing formulas. Therefore, f you input decimal latitude and longitude, the dd.mm.ss input boxes will not change. That can't be done ina spreadsheet, so don't expect to see it. There is a display area below that shows the conversions. In response to one frustrated user: there is no way to get latitude and longitude from UTM coordinates if ‘you do not know your longitude zone and hemisphere, There are four places on earth that have the same latitude and longitude if you omit N/S and E/W. There are 120 places that have the same narthing and tasting. If you have simply been given a bunch of numbers to convert, you need to go back to whomever collected the data and get the complete information, This spreadsheet cannot do it for You (On the other hand, if you know approximately where the data comes from, the spreadsheet will tll you. Enter the approximate latitude and longitude into the spreadsheet. Ignore the northing and easting values apsiowmnbaasterUedIDaaowecse4 HTM wwsooianr How a Use te sponta Covering UI ti rare (Ore Vr) and simply read of the zone The spreadsheet consists of seven sheets, three of which are normally avalable for input (bold, Main Page: Displays the datum selections and conversion windows Datum Stores datum constants and tables for miltary digraph creation Test Data: Correct sets of latitude, longitude, easting and northing, Calculations for Miltary Grid Reference System, Convert Lat-Long. to UTM: Performs calculations for display on the main page Convert UTM to Lat -Long: Performs calculations for display on the main page Batch Convert UTM to Lat-Long: For sprezdsheet-capable users who need to convert large quantities of data + Batch Convert Lat-Long, to UTM: For spreadsheet-capable users who need to convert large quantities of data For most purposes you will only need to visit the Main and Batch Convert pages. l recommend that you save the spreadsheet, then load it for use but do not save it. That way, if you wreck the spreadsheet accidentally, ‘you will stil have an uncorrupted version. Do not modi any ofthe other pages. For the most part, input on ‘the main page is restricted to white cells, Main Page Pretty self explanatory, Select the datum used on your map in the upper let corner. ‘To convert latitude and longitude to UTM, you can either use decimal format or dd.mm ss format. Use the buttons to clear data and select decimal or DMS input mode. North ané east are postive, south and west are negative. Use only signs to designate hemispheres - do not use "N" or "S." If you are inputting DMS coordinates, only use minus signs on the degrees. You do not (and in fact cannot) need to input negative minutes and seconds, ‘As noted above, do nat expect to see conversions in the data entry ells. Geographic coordinates in both {decimal and dé.mm.ss format will appear in the colored result area beneath To convert UTM to latitude and longitude, you must enter northing,easting, the longitude zone and whether your latitude is north or south. Ifyou don't enter @zone, the defaults zone 31 (0-6 degrees east. Ifyou don't know the zone, but do have a rough idea ofthe location, enter an approximate latitude and longitude into the section for converting to UTM, ignore the northing and easting values and read the zones, Then enter the zone into the section for converting UTM to geographic coordinates apsiowmnbaasterUedIDaaowecse4 HTM aHow a Use te sponta Covering UI ti rare (Ore Vr) Military Grid Reference System Enter the Longitude Zone, Latitude Zone, Digraph, Easting and Northing in the appropriate cells. Read the siobal UTM and geographic coordinates in the light green boxes. Batch Convert Lat.-Long to UTM To use this page, you need to know how to copy formulas on a spreadsheet. if your data is already in decimal format, copy it into columns 0 and E. If you have dd.mm.ss data, ou will need to convert. Enter ‘the longitude zone in Column G and the longitude of the central meridian in Column H CCopy the formulas in columns H-V (pink) down to the bottom of your data. The colurnns are minimized in width but stil visible so you can see what to copy. Input the false eastng in column W. For standard UTM, itis possible to calculate the zone and central meridian, and false easting is always '500,000. On this page, those quantities must be manually entered, since you may want to use @ non standard meridian or calculate gr coordinates outside the standaré zone, Batch Convert UTM to Lat.-Long “To use this page, you need to know how to copy formulas on a spreadsheet, Enter your hemisphere, longitude zone, northing and easting in colurnns D-G. For standard UTM, itis, possible to calculate the zone and central meridian, an false easing is always 500,000, On this page, those {quantities must be manually entered, since you may want to use a non-standard meridian or caleulate grid coordinates outside the standard zane. Copy the formulas in columns H-AA down as far as necessary to do ‘the conversions. Latitude and Longitude are given in dd.dedd format in columns AB and AC, and in ¢dé.mm ss format in columns AD-Al. References Yay! Most of these are on-line now. Snyder, .P, 1987; Map Projections A Working Manual. US. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1395, 383 p. If ou are at all serious about maps you need this book. On-line at hitpi//oubs ecuses.gov/publication/o02395 apsiowmnbaasterUedIDaaowecse4 HTM ouHow a Use te sponta Covering UI ati rare (Ore rs) Army, Department of, 1973; Universal Transverse Mercator Grid U.S. Army Technical Manual TM 5-241-8, 64 p. Superseded by DMATM 8358.2 The Universal Grids: Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) ang Universal Polar Stereographic (UPS}. Online at hitp://earthinfo.nga.mil/GandG/oublications/tme358.2/TME358 2.pdf 'NIMA Technical Report 8350.2, "Department of Defense World Geodetic System 1984, Its Definition and Relationships with Local Geodetic Systems," Seconé Edition, 1 September 1981 and its supplements. The report is available from the NIMA Combat Support Center and its stock number is DMATR83S02WGS8&4 'Non-Do0 requesters may obtain the report as a public sale item from the U.S. Geological Survey, Box 25286, Denver Federal Center, Denver, Colorado 80225 or by phone at 1-800-USA-MAPS. On-line at htto://earth ‘nfo.nga.mil/Gand/publications/ir8350 2/wesBéfin.odt Karney, Charles F, 2010, Transverse Mercator with an accuracy of afew nanometers, ‘ntio//ansivorg/abs/1002 1417v3, Provides accuracy to within nanometers (afew atoms). Supersedes Snyder and Army, above. hito://aeographicib source‘onge net provides links ta numerous utilities useful in analyzing the ellipsoidal figure ofthe earth. Return to Professor Dutch's Home Page Created 18 April 2005, Last Update 18 Moy 2015, Not an official UW Green Bay site apsiowmnbaasterUedIDaaowecse4 HTM