Electromechanical Engineering Dept.

Navigation
Third Class /Navigation /lecture 3 Dr.Ekbal H. A. 2022

Satellite Coordinate Systems

A coordinate system specifies a mechanism for locating points

within a reference frame.

When producing or using state (position and velocity) or

orientation (pointing) data
Electromechanical Engineering Dept. Navigation
Third Class /Navigation /lecture 3 Dr.Ekbal H. A. 2022

1- Polar Coordinate System

Polar coordinate is a two –dimensional coordinate system in
which each point on a plane is determined by a distance from a
fixed point and an angle from a fixed direction.

Fig. Polar Coordinate

Fig. Polar Coordinate

Example
Electromechanical Engineering Dept. Navigation
Third Class /Navigation /lecture 3 Dr.Ekbal H. A. 2022

2-Cartesian Coordinate system

Fig. Cartesian coordinate

3- Geographic Coordinate

Fig. Geographic Coordinate

Electromechanical Engineering Dept. Navigation
Third Class /Navigation /lecture 3 Dr.Ekbal H. A. 2022
Electromechanical Engineering Dept. Navigation
Third Class /Navigation /lecture 3 Dr.Ekbal H. A. 2022

Earth Center Earth Fixed(ECEF)

Convert from Polar to Cartesian coordinate

Electromechanical Engineering Dept. Navigation
Third Class /Navigation /lecture 3 Dr.Ekbal H. A. 2022

Convert ECEF System to Geographic Coordinate System

Local tangent plane

A local tangent plane can be defined based on the vertical and horizontal
dimensions. The vertical coordinate can point either up or down. There
are two kinds of conventions for the frames:
East, North, up (ENU), used in geography
North, East, down (NED), used specially in aerospace
As shown in Fig. below

Fig. () Earth centered Earth fixed and East, North, up coordinates.

Electromechanical Engineering Dept. Navigation
Third Class /Navigation /lecture 3 Dr.Ekbal H. A. 2022

Coordinate Reference System

A reference ellipsoid is the mathematical model of the shape of
the Earth with the major axis along the equatorial radius. A
geographic coordinate system uses longitude and latitude
expressed in decimal degrees. For example, WGS 1984 and
NAD 1983 are the most common datum today. Before 1983,
NAD27 was the most common datum.
Cartographers write spherical coordinates (latitudes and
longitudes) in degrees-minutes-seconds (DMS) and decimal
degrees. For degrees-minutes-seconds, minutes range from 0 to
60. For example, the geographic coordinate expressed in
degrees-minutes-seconds for New York City is:
Latitude: 40 degrees, 42 minutes, 51 seconds N
Longitude: 74 degrees, 0 minutes, 21 seconds W
You can also express geographic coordinates in decimal
degrees. It’s just another way to represent that same location in a
different format. For example, here is New York City in decimal
degrees:
Latitude: 40.714
Longitude: -74.006

Example convert DMS to decimal :

Latitude: 40 degrees, 42 minutes, 51 seconds S
Longitude: 74 degrees, 0 minutes, 21 seconds E

Sol:

Latitude: 42+51/60=42.85 and 40+42.85/60=-40.7140

Longitude :0+21/60=0.35 and 74+0.35/60=74.0060