Transverse Mercator
E1003014
Transverse Mercator is a widely used map projection that represents the Earth’s surface on a cylinder aligned along a meridian, providing accurate large-scale mapping in narrow north–south zones.
Observed surface forms (1)
| Surface form | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Transverse Mercator projection | 1 |
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
cylindrical map projection
ⓘ
map projection ⓘ |
| advantage |
conformal property useful for navigation and surveying
ⓘ
high accuracy within each zone ⓘ |
| application |
GIS datasets
ⓘ
civilian topographic maps ⓘ military mapping ⓘ |
| centralMeridian | reference meridian for minimal distortion ⓘ |
| coordinateSystemType | projected coordinate system ⓘ |
| cylinderAxisAlignment | aligned along a chosen meridian ⓘ |
| cylinderOrientation | transverse to Earth’s rotation axis ⓘ |
| differsFrom | standard Mercator by rotating the cylinder 90 degrees ⓘ |
| distorts |
area
ⓘ
direction away from central meridian ⓘ distance away from central meridian ⓘ |
| ellipsoidSupport |
commonly based on WGS84 ellipsoid
ⓘ
supports various reference ellipsoids ⓘ |
| falseEasting | commonly applied to avoid negative eastings ⓘ |
| falseNorthing | sometimes applied to avoid negative northings ⓘ |
| implementation | supported in most GIS and mapping software ⓘ |
| limitation |
distortion becomes large far from central meridian
ⓘ
not ideal for global small-scale maps ⓘ |
| mathematicalForm |
ellipsoidal formulation
ⓘ
spherical formulation ⓘ |
| preserves |
local angles
ⓘ
shapes of small areas ⓘ |
| projectionSurface | cylinder ⓘ |
| projectionType | conformal ⓘ |
| property |
meridians map to nearly straight lines near central meridian
ⓘ
parallels map to curves except at equator in spherical form ⓘ |
| relatedTo | Mercator projection NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| scaleFactorAtCentralMeridian | often less than 1 ⓘ |
| scaleVariation |
increases with distance east or west from central meridian
ⓘ
minimal near central meridian ⓘ |
| suitableFor |
engineering surveys
ⓘ
large-scale mapping ⓘ narrow north–south zones ⓘ national grid systems ⓘ topographic mapping ⓘ |
| typicalZoneWidth |
3 degrees of longitude in some national grids
GENERATED
ⓘ
6 degrees of longitude in UTM GENERATED ⓘ |
| usedBy |
GIS professionals
ⓘ
national mapping agencies ⓘ surveyors ⓘ |
| usedIn |
Universal Transverse Mercator system
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
many national coordinate reference systems ⓘ |
| zoneDesign | narrow longitudinal zones ⓘ |
| zoneNumbering | used in UTM to identify longitudinal strips ⓘ |
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Transverse Mercator projection