Ubuntu Manpage: GeoConvert -- convert geographic coordinates

Provided by: geographiclib-tools_1.21-1ubuntu1_amd64

NAME

       GeoConvert -- convert geographic coordinates

SYNOPSIS

       GeoConvert [ -g | -d | -: | -u | -m | -c ] [ -p prec ] [ -z zone | -s | -t ] [ -n ] [ -w ]
       [ --comment-delimiter commentdelim ] [ --version | -h | --help ] [ --input-file infile |
       --input-string instring ] [ --line-separator linesep ] [ --output-file outfile ]

DESCRIPTION

GeoConvert reads from standard input interpreting each line as a geographic coordinate and
prints the coordinate in the format specified by the options on standard output. The
input is interpreted in one of three different ways depending on how many space or comma
delimited tokens there are on the line. The options -g, -d, -u, and -m govern the format
of output. In all cases, the WGS84 model of the earth is used (a = 6378137 m, f =
1/298.257223563).

geographic
2 tokens (output options -g, -d, or -:) given as latitude longitude using decimal
degrees or degrees minutes seconds. d, ', and " are used to denote degrees, minutes,
and seconds, with the least significant designator optional. (See QUOTING for how to
quote the characters ' and " when entering coordinates on the command line.) Various
unicode characters (encoded with UTF-8) may also be used to denote degrees, minutes,
and seconds, e.g., the degree, prime, and double prime symbols. Alternatively, :
(colon) may be used to separate the various components. Latitude is given first
(unless the -w option is given); however, on input, either may be given first by
appending or prepending N or S to the latitude and E or W to the longitude. For
example, the following are all equivalent

33.3 44.4
E44.4 N33.3
33d18'N 44d24'E
44d24 33d18N
33:18 44:24

UTM/UPS
3 tokens (output option -u) given as zone+hemisphere easting northing or easting
northing zone+hemisphere, where hemisphere is either N or S. The zone is absent for a
UPS specification. For example,

38N 444140.54 3684706.36
444140.54 3684706.36 38N
S 2173854.98 2985980.58
2173854.98 2985980.58 S

MRGS
1 token (output option -m) is used to specify the center of an MGRS grid square. For
example,

38SMB4484
38SMB44140847064

OPTIONS

-g output latitude and longitude using decimal degrees. Default output mode.

-d output latitude and longitude using degrees, minutes, and seconds (DMS).

-: like -d, except use : as a separator instead of the d, ', and " delimiters.

-u output UTM or UPS.

-m output MGRS.

-c output meridian convergence and scale for the corresponding UTM or UPS projection.
Convergence is the bearing of grid north given as degrees clockwise from true north.

-p set the output precision to prec (default 0); prec is the precision relative to 1 m.
See PRECISION.

-z set the zone to zone for output. Use either 0 < zone <= 60 for a UTM zone or zone = 0
for UPS. Alternatively use a zone+hemisphere designation (hemisphere is ignored),
e.g., 38N. See ZONE.

-s use the standard UPS and UTM zones.

-t similar to -s but forces UPS regions to the closest UTM zone.

-n on input, MGRS coordinates refer to the south-west corner of the MGRS square instead
of the center; see MGRS.

-w on input and output, longitude precedes latitude (except that on input this can be
overridden by a hemisphere designator, N, S,E, W).

--comment-delimiter
set the comment delimiter to commentdelim (e.g., "#" or "//"). If set, the input
lines will be scanned for this delimiter and, if found, the delimiter and the rest of
the line will be removed prior to processing and subsequently appended to the output
line (separated by a space).

--version
print version and exit.

-h print usage and exit.

--help
print full documentation and exit.

--input-file
read input from the file infile instead of from standard input; a file name of "-"
stands for standard input.

--input-string
read input from the string instring instead of from standard input. All occurrences
of the line separator character (default is a semicolon) in instring are converted to
newlines before the reading begins.

--line-separator
set the line separator character to linesep. By default this is a semicolon.

--output-file
write output to the file outfile instead of to standard output; a file name of "-"
stands for standard output.

PRECISION

       prec gives precision of the output with prec = 0 giving 1 m precision, prec = 3 giving 1
       mm precision, etc.  prec is the number of digits after the decimal point for UTM/UPS.  The
       number of digits per coordinate for MGRS is 5 + prec.  For decimal degrees, the number of
       digits after the decimal point is 5 + prec.  For DMS (degree, minute, seconds) output, the
       number of digits after the decimal point in the seconds components is 1 + prec; if this is
       negative then use minutes (prec = -2 or -3) or degrees (prec <= -4) as the least
       significant component.  Print convergence, resp. scale, with 5 + prec, resp. 7 + prec,
       digits after the decimal point.  The minimum value of prec is -5 and the maximum is 9 for
       UTM/UPS, 9 for decimal degrees, 10 for DMS, 6 for MGRS, and 8 for convergence and scale.

MGRS

       MGRS coordinates represent a square patch of the earth, thus "38SMB4488" is in zone "38N"
       with 444km <= easting < 445km and 3688km <= northing < 3689km.  Consistent with this
       representation, coordinates are truncated (instead of rounded) to the requested precision.
       Similarly, on input an MGRS coordinate represents the center of the square ("38N 444500
       3688500" in the example above).  However, if the -n option is given then the south-west
       corner of the square is returned instead ("38N 444000 3688000" in the example above).

ZONE

       If the input is geographic, GeoConvert uses the standard rules of selecting UTM vs UPS and
       for assigning the UTM zone (with the Norway and Svalbard exceptions).  If the input is
       UTM/UPS, or MGRS, then the choice between UTM and UPS and the UTM zone mirrors the input.
       The -z zone, -s, -t options allow these rules to be overridden with zone = 0 being used to
       indicate UPS.  For example, the point

          79.9S 6.1E

       corresponds to possible MGRS coordinates

          32CMS4324728161 (standard UTM zone = 32)
          31CEM6066227959 (neighboring UTM zone = 31)
            BBZ1945517770 (neighboring UPS zone)

       then

          echo 79.9S 6.1E      | GeoConvert -p -3 -m       => 32CMS4328
          echo 31CEM6066227959 | GeoConvert -p -3 -m       => 31CEM6027
          echo 31CEM6066227959 | GeoConvert -p -3 -m -s    => 32CMS4328
          echo 31CEM6066227959 | GeoConvert -p -3 -m -z 0  =>   BBZ1917

       NOTE: the letter in the zone specification for UTM is a hemisphere designator N or S and
       not an MGRS latitude band letter.  Convert the MGRS latitude band letter to a hemisphere
       as follows: replace C thru M by S; replace N thru X by N.

QUOTING

       Unfortunately the characters ' and " have special meanings in many shells and have to be
       entered with care.

       Unix shells (sh, bash, tsch)
           The special characters can be quoted by preceding them with a \ (backslash).
           Alternatively you can quote a ' with a pair of "s.  The two alternatives are
           illustrated by

              echo 30d30\'30\" "30d30'30" | GeoConvert -d -p -1
              => 30d30'30"N 030d30'30"E

           Alternatively use colon separators, e.g., 30:30:30, which need no quoting.

       Windows command shell (cmd)
           The ' character needs no quoting and the " character can be quoted by a ^.  However
           this quoting is usually unnecessary because the trailing designator can be omitted.
           Thus

              echo 30d30'30^" 30d30'30 | GeoConvert -d -p -1
              => 30d30'30"N 030d30'30"E

           Alternatively use colon separators, e.g., 30:30:30, which need no quoting.

       Input from a file
           No quoting need be done if the input from a file.  Thus each line of the file
           "input.txt" should just contain the plain coordinates.

             GeoConvert -d -p -1 < input.txt

EXAMPLES

          echo 38SMB4488 | GeoConvert         => 33.33424 44.40363
          echo 38SMB4488 | GeoConvert -: -p 1 => 33:20:03.25N 044:2413.06E
          echo 38SMB4488 | GeoConvert -u      => 38N 444500 3688500
          echo E44d24 N33d20 | GeoConvert -m -p -3 => 38SMB4488

ERRORS

       An illegal line of input will print an error message to standard output beginning with
       "ERROR:" and causes GeoConvert to return an exit code of 1.  However, an error does not
       cause GeoConvert to terminate; following lines will be converted.

ABBREVIATIONS

       UTM Universal Transverse Mercator,
           <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Transverse_Mercator_coordinate_system>.

       UPS Universal Polar Stereographic,
           <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Polar_Stereographic>.

       MGRS
           Military Grid Reference System,
           <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_grid_reference_system>.

       WGS84
           World Geodetic System 1984, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WGS84>.

AUTHOR

       GeoConvert was written by Charles Karney.

HISTORY

       GeoConvert was added to GeographicLib, <http://geographiclib.sf.net>, in 2009-01.