The Map Master Class, Subsection II (Part II of Navigation Guide)

Using the UTM Grid

Welcome back to our Map Master Class. If you were confused as hell by latitude and longitude and the various ways to express them in decimals, minutes, seconds and all that in The Map Master Class: Part I, you aren’t alone. Thankfully someone was like… um, this is stupid. Let’s make this simpler. During World War II the United States Army Corps of Engineers developed the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM).

It was designed to simplify the complex task of specifying locations across the global battlefield by providing a consistent, precise, and easy-to-use coordinate system. It’s all based on the metric system, all measured in meters, which simplifies things greatly. It also has the advantage of minimizing distortions that exist in a longitudinal system.