Practical Cartographers Reference #01

UTM: Universal Transverse Mercator Coordinate System

180 174w 168w 162w 156w 150w 144w 138w 132w 126w 120w 114w 108w 102w 96w 90w 84w 78w 72w 66w 60w 54w 48w 42w 36w 30w 24w 18w 12w 6w 0 6e 12e 18e 24e 30e 36e 42e 48e 54e 60e 66e 72e 78e 84e 90e 96e 102e 108e 114e 120e 126e 132e 138e 144e 150e 156e 162e 168e 174e
12w 180
6w
84n 84n
1X 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29X 30 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60X
31 33 35 37
72n 72n
W W W
64n 64n
V V V
56n 56n
U U U
48n 48n
T T T
40n 40n
S S S
32n 32n
R R R
24n 24n
Q 20 Q Q
16n 16n
P 18 19 P P
21 22
8n 8n
1N 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 23 24 25 26 27 28 29N 30 31 33 34 35 36 37 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60N
0 0
M M 32 38 47 48 49 50 M
8s 8s
L L L
16s 16s
K K K
24s 24s
J J J
32s 32s
H H H
40s 40s
G G G
48s 48s
F F F
56s 56s
E E E
64s 64s
D D D
72s 72s

1C 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29C 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60X
80s 80s
180 174w 168w 162w 156w 150w 144w 138w 132w 126w 120w 114w 108w 102w 96w 90w 84w 78w 72w 66w 60w 54w 48w 42w 36w 30w 24w 18w 12w 6w 0 6e 12e 18e 24e 30e 36e 42e 48e 54e 60e 66e 72e 78e 84e 90e 96e 102e 108e 114e 120e 126e 132e 138e 144e 150e 156e 162e 168e 174e 180

Zones Coordinates

The UTM system divides the Earth into 60 longitudinal projection zones numbered 1 to 60 starting at 180W. Each of the
zones is 6 degrees wide with a few exceptions around Norway and Svalbard. Each zone is based on its own Transverse
Mercator projection. UTM uses a secant version of the Transverse Mercator with two standard lines located about180 km
from the central meridian
Latitudinal zones are not part of the UTM, they are part of the Military General Refernce System (MGRS). They are often
used in conjunction with the UTM. They extend from 84N to 80S and are designated with the letters C to X (skipping I
and O). Each latitudinal zone is 8 degrees, except for the 12 degree zone X.
Beware of confusion between the standard N and S (indicating north and south of the Equator in the UTM system) and
zone S in the MGRS with is in the northern hemisphere
A location referenced in the UTM system is denoted by the zone (north or south) and the easting and northing
coordinate pair. The easting is the projected distance, in meters, from the central meridian and the northing is the
projected distance, in meters, from the Equator.
The point of origin of each UTM zone is the intersection of the Equator and the zone's central meridian. In order
to avoid dealing with negative numbers for easting, the central meridian of each zone is given a "false easting"
value of 500,000 meters.
Northern hemisphere northings are measured from the Equator, which has an initial northing of 0 meters. In the
southern hemisphere northings decrease as you go southward from the Equator, which is given a "false northing"
of 10,000,000 meters so that no point within the zone has a negative northing value.

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Practical Cartographers Reference #02

Most Used Unit Conversions for Mapping

For calculating scale

63,360 inches in one mile
5,280 feet in one mile
1,000,000 millimeters in one kilometer
100,000 centimeters in one kilometer

Between systems of measurement (* constants are exact)

You have multiply by to get

You have multiply by to get

Centimeters 0.3937008 Inches 2.54* Centimeters

Meters 3.2808399 Feet 0.3048* Meters
Kilometers 0.6213712 Miles 1.609344* Kilometers
Nautical Miles 1.1507794 Miles 0.8689762 Nautical Miles
Nautical Miles 1.852* Kilometers 0.5399568 Nautical Miles

Square Centimeters 0.1550003 Square Inches 6.4516* Square Centimeters

Square Centimeters 0.0010763 Square Feet 929.0304* Square Centimeters
Square Meters 10.7639104 Square Feet 0.09290304* Square Meters
Hectares 2.4710541 Acres 0.4046856 Hectares
Square Kilometers 0.3861022 Square Miles 2.5899881 Square Kilometers
Square Kilometers 100.0* Hectares 0.01* Square Kilometers
Square Miles 640.0* Acres 0.0015625* Square Miles

Degrees 0.017453292 Radians 57.2958 Degrees

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Practical Cartographers Reference #03

LandSat Image Info for Mapping

Landsat 4, 5, and 7 Channels Landsat-8 Channels

Band Pixel Size Wavelength Range (micrometers) No. Pixel Size Wavelength Range (micrometers)

1 30 m Blue, 0.450.515 1 30m Coastal-aerosol, 0.430.45

2 30 m Green, 0.5250.605 2 30 m Blue, 0.450.51
3 30 m Red, 0.630.69 3 30 m Green, 0.530.59
4 30 m Near infrared, 0.750.90 4 30 m Red, 0.640.67
5 30 m Mid Infrared, 1.551.75 5 30 m Near infrared, 0.850.88
6 60 m Infrared, 10.4012.5 6 30 m Short-wave Infrared 1, 1.571.65
7 30 m Shortwave Infrared, 2.092.35 7 30 m Short-wave Infrared 2, 2.092.35
8 15 m Pan-chromatic, 0.520.90 8 15 m Pan-chromatic, 0.500.68
(Landsat 7 only) 9 30 m Cirrus, 1.361.38
10 100 m (resampled to 30) TIRS 1, 10.6011.19
11 100 m (resampled to 30) TIRS 2, 11.512.51

Common Channel Combinations

R-G-B Characteristics
3-2-1 Red, green and blue visible light channels; closest
to image as seen by human eye

4-3-2 Near infrared combined with red and green

visible channels, as known as Color Infrared
(CIR); vegetation analysis

7-4-2 Used by USGS in creating ETM+ Mosaics for

the world; natural-ish color, cuts through
atmospheric interference

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Practical Cartographers Reference #04

Making Colors

Additive color. Mixing with light. Subtractive color. Mixing with pigment.

Yellow Blue
RED GREEN CYAN MAGENTA

Magenta Cyan Green Red

BLUE YELLOW

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Practical Cartographers Reference #05

Web Mercator Parameters

Projection info for web map tiling (used by ArcGIS Online, Google Maps, OSM and Bing Maps among others)

Projection: Spherical Mercator, WGS 1984; EPSG:3857 (old EPSG 3785 and 900913)
Coordinate system in ArcGIS: Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere (WKID 102100)
Global Extent: 180 West to 180 East, approximately 85.05 South to 85.05 North
Pixel density for scales below: 96 pixels per inch

Zoom level Scale 1 to

0 591,657,528
1 295,828,764
2 147,914,382
3 73,957,191
4 36,978,595
5 18,489,298
6 9,244,649
7 4,622,324
8 2,311,162
9 1,155,581
10 577,791
11 288,895
12 144,448
13 72,224
14 36,112
15 18,056
16 9,028
17 4,514
18 2,257
19 1,128

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Practical Cartographers Reference #06

Earth Information

Globe characteristics:

Rotation: Counter-clockwise when viewed from above

Tilt: 23.44

Line DMS Decimal Degrees

Arctic Circle 66 33 44 N 66.562222 S
Tropic of Cancer 23 26 16 N 23.437778 N
Equator 0 0
Tropic of Capricorn 23 26 16 S 23.437778 S
Antarctic Circle 66 33 44 S 66.562222 S

Measurements:

Metric Imperial Description

40,075 km 24,901 mi Circumference, Equatorial

40,008 km 24,860 mi Circumference, Meridianal

8,848 m 29,029 ft Highest Land Elevation

-377m -1,237 ft Lowest Land Elevation
-10,916 m -35,814 ft Deepest Ocean Depth

510,072,000 km2 196,939,900 mi2 Surface Area

148,940,000 km2 57,506,055 mi2 Land Area
361,132,000 km2 139,433,845 mi2 Water Area

29.2% Land as percentage of surface area

70.8% Water as percentage of surface area

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Practical Cartographers Reference #07

U.S.Geological Survey Standard Conic Projections

Continental United States
Projection: Albers Equal Area
Coordinate System: NAD 1983
Central Meridian -96.0 W
Standard Parallel 1 29.5 N
Standard Parallel 2 45.5 N
Latitude of Origin 23.0 N 0 200 mi

Alaska
Projection: Albers Equal Area
Coordinate System: NAD 1983
Central Meridian -154.0 W (for all Aleutians, older = -140W)
Standard Parallel 1 55.0 N
Standard Parallel 2 65.0 N
Latitude of Origin 50.0 N
0 200 mi

Hawaii
Projection: Albers Equal Area
Coordinate System: NAD 1983
Central Meridian -157.0 W
Standard Parallel 1 8.0 N 0 200 mi

Standard Parallel 2 18.0 N

Latitude of Origin 13.0 N

Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands

Projection: Albers Equal Area
Coordinate System: NAD 1983
Central Meridian -66.5.0 W
0 200 mi
Standard Parallel 1 8.0 N
Standard Parallel 2 18.0 N
Latitude of Origin 13.0 N

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Practical Cartographers Reference #08a

Lengths of a Degree of Longitude

Measured along the parallel

Parallel Kilometers Miles Parallel Kilometers Miles Parallel Kilometers Miles

0 111.321 69.172 30 96.488 59.956 60 55.802 34.674
1 111.304 69.162 31 95.506 59.345 61 54.110 33.623
2 111.253 69.130 32 94.495 58.716 62 52.400 32.560
3 111.169 69.078 33 93.455 58.071 63 50.675 31.488
4 111.051 69.005 34 92.387 57.407 64 48.934 30.406
5 110.900 68.911 35 91.290 56.725 65 47.177 29.315
6 110.715 68.795 36 90.166 56.027 66 45.407 28.215
7 110.497 68.660 37 89.014 55.311 67 43.622 27.106
8 110.245 68.504 38 87.835 54.579 68 41.823 25.988
9 109.959 68.326 39 86.629 53.829 69 40.012 24.862
10 109.641 68.129 40 85.396 53.063 70 38.188 23.729
11 109.289 67.910 41 84.137 52.281 71 36.353 22.589
12 108.904 67.670 42 82.853 51.483 72 34.506 21.441
13 108.486 67.410 43 81.543 50.669 73 32.648 20.287
14 108.036 67.131 44 80.208 49.840 74 30.781 19.127
15 107.553 66.830 45 78.849 49.995 75 28.903 17.960
16 107.036 66.510 46 77.466 48.136 76 27.017 16.788
17 106.487 66.169 47 76.058 47.261 77 25.123 15.611
18 105.906 65.808 48 74.628 46.372 78 23.220 14.428
19 105.294 65.427 49 73.174 45.469 79 21.311 13.242
20 104.649 65.026 50 71.698 44.552 80 19.394 12.051
21 103.972 64.606 51 70.200 43.621 81 17.472 10.857
22 103.264 64.166 52 68.680 42.676 82 15.545 9.659
23 102.524 63.706 53 67.140 41.719 83 13.612 8.458
24 101.754 63.228 54 65.578 40.749 84 11.675 7.255
25 100.952 62.729 55 63.996 39.766 85 9.735 6.049
26 100.119 62.212 56 62.395 38.771 86 7.792 4.842
27 99.257 61.676 57 60.774 37.764 87 5.846 3.632
28 98.364 61.122 58 59.135 36.745 88 3.898 2.422
29 97.441 60.548 59 57.478 35.716 89 1.949 1.211

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Practical Cartographers Reference #08b

Lengths of a Degree of Latitude

Measured along the meridian

Parallel Kilometers Miles Parallel Kilometers Miles Parallel Kilometers Miles

0-1 110.567 68.703 30-31 110.857 68.883 60-61 111.423 69.235
1-2 110.568 68.704 31-32 110.874 68.894 61-62 111.440 69.246
2-3 110.569 68.705 32-33 110.892 68.905 62-63 111.456 69.256
3-4 110.571 68.706 33-34 110.910 68.916 63-64 111.472 69.266
4-5 110.574 68.708 34-35 110.928 68.928 64-65 111.488 69.275
5-6 110.578 68.710 35-36 110.947 68.939 65-66 111.503 69.285
6-7 110.582 68.712 36-37 110.966 68.951 66-67 111.518 69.294
7-8 110.586 68.715 37-38 110.985 68.962 67-68 111.532 69.303
8-9 110.592 68.718 38-39 111.004 68.974 68-69 111.546 69.311
9-10 110.598 68.722 39-40 111.023 68.986 69-70 111.560 69.320
10-11 110.605 68.726 40-41 111.042 68.998 70-71 111.572 69.328
11-12 110.612 68.731 41-42 111.062 69.011 71-72 111.585 69.335
12-13 110.620 68.736 42-43 111.082 69.023 72-73 111.596 69.343
13-14 110.628 68.741 43-44 111.101 69.035 73-74 111.607 69.349
14-15 110.638 68.747 44-45 111.121 69.047 74-75 111.618 69.356
15-16 110.648 68.753 45-46 111.141 69.060 75-76 111.628 69.362
16-17 110.658 68.759 46-47 111.161 69.072 76-77 111.637 69.368
17-18 110.669 68.766 47-48 111.180 69.084 77-78 111.646 69.373
18-19 110.680 68.773 48-49 111.200 69.096 78-79 111.654 69.378
19-20 110.692 68.781 49-50 111.220 69.108 79-80 111.661 69.383
20-21 110.705 68.789 50-51 111.239 69.121 80-81 111.668 69.387
21-22 110.718 68.797 51-52 111.258 69.133 81-82 111.674 69.391
22-23 110.732 68.805 52-53 111.278 69.145 82-83 111.680 69.395
23-24 110.746 68.814 53-54 111.297 69.156 83-84 111.685 69.398
24-25 110.761 68.823 54-55 111.315 69.168 84-85 111.689 69.400
25-26 110.776 68.833 55-56 111.334 69.180 85-86 111.692 69.402
26-27 110.791 68.842 56-57 111.352 69.191 86-87 111.695 69.404
27-28 110.807 68.852 57-58 111.371 69.202 87-88 111.697 69.405
28-29 110.823 68.862 58-59 111.388 69.213 88-89 111.699 69.406
29-30 110.840 68.873 59-60 111.406 69.224 89-90 111.699 69.407

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Practical Cartographers Reference #09

Digital Video and Map Preparation

Digital Video Parameters

Aspect Ratio 16:9 or 4:3; see below

Pixel Dimensions See below
Frame Rates 15, 23.976, 25, 29.97, 30, 60; find out from your video production partner; otherwise use 30fps
Codec Save without codec if possible by using Animation or uncompressed setting; find out from you
video production partner; otherwise use h264
File Format Find out from you video production partner; otherwise save as QuickTime or AVI as default
Pixel Shape Create yours as square but remember that some video systems use rectangular

Most Common Pixel Dimensions for creating graphics for video

Ratio Size Frame Rates Used by

16:9 1920 x 1080 various HD 1080p digital video systems, highest quality
16:9 1280 x 720 various HD 720p digital video systems, lower quality
4:3 768 x 576 various NTSC and PAL SD video systems
4:3 640 x 480 various VGA video systems

4x3
640 x 480
4x3
786 x 576
16 x 9
1280 x 720

16 x 9

1920 x 1080

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Practical Cartographers Reference #10

Standard Paper Sizes

American paper sizes (many aspect ratios)

Name in x in mm mm Name in x in mm mm Ratio Similar

Name in x in mm mm Alias ISO A A
Letter 8.5 x 11 216 x 279 Arch A 9 x 12 229 x 305 3:4 Letter
Legal 8.5 x 14 216 x 356 Arch B 12 x 18 305 x 457 2:3
ANSI A 9 x 12 216 x 279 Letter A4
C
17 x 11 432 x 279 Ledger
Jr. Legal 8.0 x 5.0 203 x 127 Arch C 18 x 24 457 x 610 3:4 ANSI B A3 B
11 x 17 279 x 432 Tabloid Tabloid
E
Ledger 17 x 11 432 x 279 Arch D 24 x 36 610 x 914 2:3
ANSI C 17 x 22 432 x 559 -- A2
Tabloid 11 x 17 279 x 432 Arch E 36 x 48 914 x 1219 3:4
ANSI D 22 x 34 559 x 864 -- A1
Arch E1 30 x 42 762 x 1067 5:7
Arch E2 26 x 38 660 x 965 13:19
ANSI E 34 x 44 864 x 1118 -- A0
D
Arch E3 27 x 39 686 x 991 9:13

The ANSI series

ISO paper sizes (based on aspect ratio = 2)

A8
Format A series B series C series A6
A7
Size mm mm in in mm mm in in mm mm in in A4
A5
0 841 1189 33.11 46.81 1000 1414 39.37 55.67 917 1297 36.10 51.06
1 594 841 23.39 33.11 707 1000 27.83 39.37 648 917 25.51 36.10
A2
2 420 594 16.54 23.39 500 707 19.69 27.83 458 648 18.03 25.51 A3
3
4
297 420
210 297
11.69 16.54 353 500
8.27 11.69 250 353
13.90 19.69 324 458
9.84 13.90 229 324
12.76 18.03
9.02 12.76
A0
5 148 210 5.83 8.27 176 250 6.93 9.84 162 229 6.38 9.02
6 105 148 4.13 5.83 125 176 4.92 6.93 114 162 4.49 6.38 A1
7 74 105 2.91 4.13 88 125 3.46 4.92 81 114 3.19 4.49
8 52 74 2.05 2.91 62 88 2.44 3.46 57 81 2.24 3.19
9 37 52 1.46 2.05 44 62 1.73 2.44 40 57 1.57 2.24
The ISO A series
10 26 37 1.02 1.46 31 44 1.22 1.73 28 40 1.10 1.57

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