What is a transverse Mercator projection used for?
The transverse Mercator projection is appropriate for mapping large-scale or smaller areas with predominantly north-south trending extents. It is a very commonly used projection. Various countries use it for their topographic maps and large-scale coordinate systems.
What is the difference between UTM and TM?
As opposed to TM, in UTM the cylinder is secant to the surface; it intersects the globe creating two standard meridians 180km away of the central meridian. To more or less evenly distribute distortion across the zone, scale factor 0.9996 for the central meridian is used.
What type of projection is a UTM?
UTM is the acronym for Universal Transverse Mercator, a plane coordinate grid system named for the map projection on which it is based (Transverse Mercator). The UTM system consists of 60 zones, each 6-degrees of longitude in width.
Is Transverse Mercator equal area?
While the State Plane Coordinate System and UTM grids use Transverse Mercator because it’s ideal for large-scale mapping when you use the correct zone. Finally, compromise projections like the Miller projection take the best of all worlds without making a perfect equal area, conformal or equidistant map projection.
Do the UTM coordinates cover the entire globe?
The Universal Transverse Mercator system is not really universal, but it does cover nearly the entire Earth surface. The UTM system divides the remainder of the Earth’s surface into 60 zones, each spanning 6° of longitude.
What is UTM projection good for?
This allows distances and angles to be computed easily, and minimizes distortion. While the military popularized the UTM projection for ground operations, it is also ideal for many GIS operations. The Mercator projection is conformal and preserves angles, but distortion increases away from the equator.
Is the Transverse Mercator projection used in the UTM?
The transverse Mercator map projection is an adaptation of the standard Mercator projection. The transverse version is widely used in national and international mapping systems around the world, including the UTM.
What is the abbreviation for Universal Transverse Mercator?
UTM is the acronym for Universal Transverse Mercator, a plane coordinate grid system named for the map projection on which it is based (Transverse Mercator). The UTM system consists of 60 zones, each 6-degrees of longitude in width. The zones are numbered 1-60, beginning at 180-degrees longitude and increasing to the east.
Which is the transverse aspect of the Mercator?
When paired with a suitable geodetic datum, the transverse Mercator delivers high accuracy in zones less than a few degrees in east-west extent. The transverse Mercator projection is the transverse aspect of the standard (or Normal) Mercator projection.
How many zones are there in the mercator system?
Each of the 60 zones uses a transverse Mercator projection that can map a region of large north-south extent with low distortion.