The State Plane Coordinate System (SPCS) is a set of geographic coordinate systems that are used in the United States for mapping and surveying purposes. It was developed by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (now part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA) in the 1930s to provide a standardized method for mapping land in different states.
The SOTA Mapping Project refers to the "Summits on the Air" (SOTA) program, which is a popular amateur radio activity that encourages hams (amateur radio operators) to take their equipment to mountain summits and operate from these elevated locations. The SOTA Mapping Project specifically focuses on creating detailed maps and resources to assist participants in locating and reporting their activations from various summits.
A QRA locator is a specific type of locator used in amateur radio to denote a geographical location. It is part of the QRA grid system, which is a coded method for identifying locations based on a combination of letters and numbers. Each QRA locator typically consists of a combination of four characters: two letters followed by two numbers (e.g., "FN31").
A projected coordinate system (PCS) is a method used in cartography and geographic information systems (GIS) to represent the curved surface of the Earth on a flat surface, such as a map or screen. It involves transforming the latitude and longitude coordinates of geographic locations into a two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system, allowing for more efficient distance measurements and area calculations.
PROJ is an open-source software library used for performing cartographic projections and coordinate transformations. It is widely used in geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, and mapping applications. PROJ provides a powerful framework for converting geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) to projected coordinates (e.g., UTM, state plane) and vice versa. Originally developed in the 1970s, PROJ has evolved over the years and is now maintained by a community of developers.
Open Location Code (OLC), also known as "Plus Codes," is a geocoding system developed by Google. It provides a way to represent any location on Earth using a short string of characters. OLCs were designed to address the limitations of traditional addresses in areas where formal addressing systems may be inadequate or nonexistent. An Open Location Code consists of a combination of letters and numbers that can be used to pinpoint a location precisely.
The New Zealand Map Grid (NZMG) is a geodetic coordinate system used for mapping and surveying purposes in New Zealand. It provides a uniform framework for locating features on the Earth's surface within the country. The NZMG is based on the Transverse Mercator projection and was established to enable accurate and consistent mapping across New Zealand.
The Modified Transverse Mercator (MTM) is a variation of the Transverse Mercator projection, optimized for mapping smaller areas with increased accuracy. This projection is particularly suitable for regions that have a significant east-west extent, offering reduced distortion in both distance and shape compared to standard Transverse Mercator.
Mapcode is a location referencing system that provides precise coordinates to represent a specific geographic location. It is designed to offer a more user-friendly way to convey location information compared to traditional latitude and longitude coordinates. Mapcode codes are typically alphanumeric strings that can be easily communicated and used across various platforms and applications. The system is particularly useful in situations where standard addresses might not be available or where GPS coordinates would be cumbersome to share.
The Maidenhead Locator System, also known as the grid locator system, is a geographic coordinate system used primarily by amateur radio operators to specify locations on the Earth's surface. It is a way to simplify the reporting of location coordinates, turning complex longitude and latitude into a more manageable alphanumeric format. The system divides the world into grid squares, each identified by a combination of letters and numbers. The format consists of two letters followed by two numbers, and sometimes followed by an additional pair of letters (e.
Local tangent plane coordinates (often abbreviated as LTP coordinates) are a system of coordinates used in the study of differential geometry and in applications such as robotics, computer graphics, and geodesy. They provide a way to describe the local geometry of a surface or a manifold in a neighborhood of a point by using a flat, two-dimensional plane that is tangent to the surface at that point.
ISO 6709 is an international standard that specifies a representation format for geographic point locations. It defines how to express latitude and longitude coordinates in a way that is machine-readable and can be used in various applications, such as geographic information systems (GIS), mapping services, and databases. The standard provides a way to encode geographic coordinates with accompanying metadata, such as the coordinate reference system, altitude, and the precision of the coordinates.
Grid (often referred to as a spatial index) is a data structure used in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial databases to efficiently organize and retrieve spatial data based on its location. The grid spatial index divides a geographic space into a series of uniform rectangular cells or grids, each representing a specific area. It allows for faster querying and analysis of spatial data by reducing the number of comparisons that need to be made when searching for nearby points or objects.
The Global Navigation Grid Code (GNGC) is not a widely recognized term as of my last update in October 2023. However, it may refer to a system or code used for global navigation, possibly in the context of geographic information systems (GIS), satellite navigation, or related fields. In these areas, grid codes can be essential for identifying specific locations on Earth, coordinating movement, or organizing spatial data.
The Global Area Reference System (GARS) is a geospatial framework used for referencing and organizing geographic areas on a global scale. It provides a systematic way to divide the Earth's surface into a grid of cells, which can be referenced by their coordinates. GARS is particularly useful in various fields such as military operations, disaster management, environmental monitoring, and resource allocation, enabling users to share and analyze spatial data more effectively.
The German Naval Grid System (GNSS) is a coordinate system used primarily by the German Navy for navigation and maritime operations. It allows for precise location referencing and is crucial for naval activities, including navigation, reconnaissance, and operational planning. While specifics about the grid system may vary, the GNSS typically includes: 1. **Grid Reference System**: A structured grid that divides maritime areas into squares or sections, making it easier to pinpoint locations at sea.
Geomagnetic latitude is a coordinate used in geomagnetism to indicate the position of a point on the Earth's surface in relation to the geomagnetic poles. Unlike geographic latitude, which is based on the Earth's rotational axis, geomagnetic latitude is based on the Earth's magnetic field. The geomagnetic latitude is defined as the angle between a point on the Earth's surface and the geomagnetic equator, measured from the center of the Earth.
Geohash is a system for encoding geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) into a compact string of characters. It was invented by Gustavo Niemeyer in 2008 and is often used in geospatial applications to simplify location-based data handling and storage. ### How it Works: 1. **Encoding**: A geographic location is represented by dividing the Earth into a grid of cells. Each cell is given a unique identifier (the "Geohash") made up of a string of letters and numbers.
"Geography," written by the ancient Greek scholar Claudius Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD, is one of the foundational texts in the history of cartography and geography. In this work, Ptolemy compiles and organizes geographical information known at his time, including detailed descriptions of the known world, along with maps illustrating various regions.
A Discrete Global Grid (DGG) is a mathematical and conceptual framework used to represent geographic data in a regular, grid-like manner across the Earth's surface. Unlike traditional geographic coordinate systems based on latitude and longitude, which can suffer from issues like varying resolution or distortion, DGGs provide a way to partition the globe into a uniform tiling of cells or grid elements.

Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project

Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
We have two killer features:
  1. topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculus
    Articles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
    • a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
    • a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
    This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.
    Figure 1.
    Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page
    . View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivative
  2. local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:
    This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
    Figure 5. . You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.
    Video 3.
    Edit locally and publish demo
    . Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.
  3. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook-media/master/feature/x/hilbert-space-arrow.png
  4. Infinitely deep tables of contents:
    Figure 6.
    Dynamic article tree with infinitely deep table of contents
    .
    Descendant pages can also show up as toplevel e.g.: ourbigbook.com/cirosantilli/chordate-subclade
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact