Longitude and latitude

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 1
 ?

How do we describe a location?

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 2
 (adapted from Kimmerling et al., 2009)

Angular unit of measure

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 3
 48°51′ 30” N, 2°17′ 40” E

Longitude and latitude

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 4
 90° N 80° N
70° N
60° N
50° N
40° N
30° N
20° N
Origin Equator
10° N
0° (Equator)
10° S
20° S
30° S
Earth’s axis
40° S
50° S
60° S
70° S
90° S 80° S

Latitude (parallels)

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 5
 180° (International Date Line) 

North pole

90° W 90° E

0° (Prime Meridian)
Longitude (meridians)

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 6
 Graticule

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 7
 40°

40°

40°

40°

40°

40°

40°

Measuring distances

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 8
 Royal Observatory

Defining the prime meridian

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 9
 North pole

Greenwich, England

Prime meridian

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 10
Why Greenwich?
 Chosen in 1884
 Was already basis for U.S. time zones, most 
sea charts

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 11
 Royal Observatory

Where in Greenwich?

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 12
Photomechanical print after Lock & Whitfield
Airy Transit Circle

Where in the Observatory?

http://www.nmm.ac.uk/explore/astronomy‐and‐time/astronomy‐facts/history/airys‐transit‐circle

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 13
Recording lat/long coordinates

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 14
Long/Lat Coordinates
 Sexagesimal (base 60) system
 Degrees, Minutes, Seconds (DMS)
 e.g. 142° 32’ 23”

1 degree = 60 minutes
1 minute = 60 seconds.

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 15
Recording coordinates

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 16
Recording coordinates

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 17
 +ve latitude

‐x, +y +x, +y

‐ve longitude +ve longitude

‐x, ‐y +x, ‐y

‐ve latitude

Decimal degree signs

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 18
 Eiffel Tower: 
2.2945272, 48.8582680
(longitude, latitude)

www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html
www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?&center=2.2945272,48.8582680
www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?&center=2.2945272,48.8582680&level=8
www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?&center=2.2945272,48.8582680&level=8&mapOnly=true

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 19
 121° 8’ 6”

Converting
= D + DMS/DD
(M/60) coordinates
+ (S/3600)

= 121 + (8/60) + (6/3600)

= 121.135

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 20
 121° 8’ 6”
= D + (M/60) + (S/3600)
= 121 + (8/60) + (6/3600)
= 121.135

Degrees, Minutes, Seconds  Decimal Degrees

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 21
 121°.135
121.135
8.1
.135 x 60 = 8.1
.1 x 60 = 6
121° 8’ 6”

Decimal degrees  Degrees, minutes, seconds

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 22
The Earth as an Ellipsoid

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 23
The earth is not round

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 24
Flattening and bulging

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 25
 Semi‐minor axis
b
f a  b
a a
Semi‐major axis
f≈ 1
300

Earth can be modeled as an ellipsoid

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 26
 Ellipsoid Semi-major axis (m) Flattening (1/f)
Airy 1830 6,377,563.396 299.3249646
Australian National 6,377,340.189 298.25
Clarke 1866 6,378,206.4 294.9786982
International 1924 6,378,388 297
GRS 80 6,378,137 298.257222101

(adapted from Lo and Yeung, 2006)

Ellipsoid Examples

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 27
 Equal

If the earth was a sphere…

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 28
 Not equal

If the earth is an ellipsoid…

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 29
Equator
45°
Equatorial plane

Geocentric latitude

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 30
 45°
Equatorial plane

Geodetic latitude

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 31
 If you treat the Earth as a sphere to measure distance you will 
be off by about 1 km for every 110 km (~1%) 
 1:5 million or smaller: not noticeable, use geocentric
 1:1 million or larger: noticeable, use geodetic.

Distance measurements

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 32
Horizontal datum

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 33
Ellipsoids
 Each ellipsoid is designed to approximate the 
Earth’s shape for one part of the planet
 How do we specify which part?
 Use a datum.

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 34
 Ellipsoid Earth
Specifies ellipsoid used and its location
point on ellipsoid linked to point on earth 
(the origin, from which all other points are calculated).

Datum

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 35
 Earth’s surface
Local datum
Earth‐centered datum

Datum comparison

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 36
Datums
 Hundreds of different ellipsoids and datums
have been used since the first estimates of the 
earth's size were made by Aristotle

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 37
Datum Elements NAD 27 NAD 83
Ellipsoid Clarke 1866 GRS 80
Semi‐major axis 6,378,206.4 m 6,378,137.0 m
Datum origin Meades Ranch, Kansas Center of Earth’s mass
Control points 25,000 250,000
Best fitting North America Worldwide

(adapted from Lo and Yeung, 2006)

NAD 27 vs. NAD 83

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 38
Meades Ranch, Kansas

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 39
Geographic coordinate system

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 40
Selecting a coordinate system

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 41
Geographic Coordinate System
 Consists of:
 Angular unit of measure
 Prime meridian
 Datum 
• Specifies an ellipsoid
 There are many different ellipsoids, so there 
are many different geographic coordinate 
systems.

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 42
 GCS: NAD83

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 43
Changing horizontal datums

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 44
Changing datums
 Geographic coordinate system
 Angular unit of measure
 Prime meridian
 Datum 
• Based on an ellipsoid

 Since the datum is part of the definition, if you 
change the datum, you are changing the 
geographic coordinate system, so your 
coordinates will change.

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 45
 Describe position using 
? angle from center.
Latitude: 45°

Equator 45°

Determining latitude on a sphere

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 46
 Point is no longer
at 45° latitude

45°

Changing the shape
also changes the angle

If sphere changes to an ellipsoid…

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 47
 Using 45° latitude will 
place point incorrectly
45° True location

35°

Put another way…

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 48
 Angle changed
again.

35°

Changing ellipsoids

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 49
Geographic coordinates
 The datum (and, therefore, the ellipsoid) is the 
frame of reference for the coordinates
 When you map angular coordinates, you must 
use the same datum that was used to 
originally measure them.

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 50
In other words…
 The same location will have different 
coordinates on a sphere vs. an ellipsoid, and 
also on different ellipsoids

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 51
Changing datums
Same point in Redlands, California:

NAD 27:  ‐117° 12’ 54.61539” 34° 01’ 43.72995”

NAD 83:  ‐117° 12’ 57.75961” 34° 01’ 43.77884

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 52
 Goddess of Liberty

Texas State Capitol Building, Austin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_State_Capitol http://www.tspb.state.tx.us/spb/gallery/HisArt/19lg.htm

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 53
 CAPE
European Datum 1950 +
+
+ Provisional South American
Pulkovo 1942 + + AD Indian
+
Australian Geodetic System 1984
Ordnance Survey 1936 + 500 m
+ + 1000 m
Indian
Tokyo

http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/datum/datum.html

Datum differences

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 54
 Tokyo NAD 83

NAD83 vs. Tokyo datums

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 55
Alexrk2, from NADCON, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Datum_Shift_Between_NAD27_and_NAD83.png 

Difference (m) of same coordinates in NAD 27 vs NAD 83

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 56
Datums and GIS
 Data acquisition
 must know datum used to create data
 if wrong one used, will have measurement errors, 
objects may not line up properly 

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 57
Vertical datum

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 58
Earth’s surface
How high is this?

With reference to what?
Elevation

Local sea level

Vertical Position

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 59
 Sea level:
…assumes that water settles to a 
common level everywhere on Earth.
Elevation

What reference surface?

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 60
  Measure water level at same place 
for 20 years
 Average out high and low tides
Elevation
 Problem:
 MSL will still vary with location, even 
along the same coastline.

Mean sea level

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 61
  Currents
 Air pressure
 Temperature
Elevation  Salinity 
 Changes in Moon’s orbit
…we need a more consistent 
reference surface.

Mean sea level varies with…

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 62
 Sea level would be 
the same everywhere, 
even over land

Ellipsoid    We could then measure
(GRS80) any elevation relative 
to this one “sea level” 

If water could settle to one level…

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 63
 Water is drawn  Water collects
away from and “bulges” above
areas of lower gravity areas of higher gravity
Lower Higher
Density Density
Rock Rock

We can still measure
any elevation relative 
to this “sea level” 

If we account for gravity…

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 64
 Surface undulates
according to
Lower Higher gravitational pull
Density Density
Rock Rock

Higher
Density
Moderate
Density
Lower
Density
Ellipsoid We can still measure
(GRS80) any elevation relative 
to this “sea level” called the geoid 

If we account for gravity…

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 65
http://www.gfz‐potsdam.de/en/media‐communication/mediathek/image‐galleries/geoid‐the‐potsdam‐gravity‐potato/

Potsdam gravity potato

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 66
 Surface with same
strength of gravity
as sea level

Geoid

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 67
Earth’s surface
How high is this?
With reference to what?
Elevation
Geoid
Local sea level
Geoid Height
Ellipsoid
Higher Lower
Density Density

Vertical Position

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 68
http://op.gfz‐potsdam.de/grace/results/grav/g002_eigen‐grace02s.html

Geoid heights

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 69