Latitude / Longitude Formats

There are quite a few different ways of displaying Latitude / Longitude on your SatNav, GPS, Mapping program etc. here are some of them :-

1. N50.06579 W5.71364 . . . . . hddd.ddddd
   
2. N50 3.947 W5 42.819 . . . . . hddd mm.mmm
   
3. N50 03 56.8 W5 42 49.1 . . . hddd mm ss.s
   
4. 50.06579 -5.71364 . . . . . . . sddd.ddddd
   
5. 50 3.974 -5 42.819 . . . . . . . sddd mm.mmm
   
6. 50 03 56.8 -5 42 49.1 . . . . . sddd mm ss.s

Key
N = North, S = South, E = East, W = West
d = Degrees (360 in a circle)
m = Minutes (60 in a Degree)
s = Second (60 in a Minute)
h = Use N, S, E or W
s = Use Plus '+' (or blank) and '-' Minus in place of (N or E) and (S or W) respectively
NOTE :- spaces between groups of characters must be used correctly


All 6 examples above point to the same location (Try them out on a Google Earth search), the Earth is divided into 4 regions, North West, North East, South West and South East with values of 0 - 90 Degrees North or South counting from the Equator and Values of 0 - 180 Degrees East and West counting from The Greenwich meridian.

Where N, S, E and W are not used, they are replaced with a Plus and Minus sign (although the Plus sign is often omitted completely), The Northern and Eastern sectors have positive numbers and the Southern and Western sectors have negative numbers

Garmin Units
Some Garmin Units only allow formats 1,2 and 3 (above), although Garmin Basecamp allows all 6, some leading zeros are inserted, so for example format 1 above would become :-
N50.06579 W005.71364