BTW - GNIS explicitly appends "W" to the eastings.
Most processing systems trap this and do a sign change.
And GNIS does not only use "westings" - e.g. Manhattan Creek
in the Aleutians has a true "easting"!!
Simon Cox wrote:
>
> Sorry Rebecca - I think this is a US-centric problem.
>
> In conventional cartesian geometrical systems, following western
> writing systems, we incremenet numbers on the X-axis from left to right.
> In geography, this means that longitudes in the Eastern hemisphere are +ve,
> while longitudes in the western hemisphere are -ve.
>
> Of course the latter covers USA.
> So some local US standards invert this and choose to count
> from right to left, so that the longitude values of areas in the US are always +ve.
>
> But I'm afraid that trying to export this to the rest of the world won't
> be accepted, for obvious reasons. North and East were carefully chosen to
> match conventional cartesian geometry.
>
> Simon
>
> "Rebecca S. Guenther" wrote:
> >
> > Forwarded as a result of an inquiry I received. Does anyone understand the
> > inconsistency here? What might be done to allow for the usage of
> > coordinates in the U.S. Geographic Names Information System? Define a new
> > qualifier?
> >
> > Rebecca
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > ^^ Rebecca S. Guenther ^^
> > ^^ Senior Networking and Standards Specialist ^^
> > ^^ Network Development and MARC Standards Office ^^
> > ^^ 1st and Independence Ave. SE ^^
> > ^^ Library of Congress ^^
> > ^^ Washington, DC 20540-4402 ^^
> > ^^ (202) 707-5092 (voice) (202) 707-0115 (FAX) ^^
> > ^^ [log in to unmask] ^^
> > ^^ ^^
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 15:13:37 -0400
> > From: John Kane <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
> > Subject: DCMI point and box
> >
> > Rebecca:
> > As per to our phone conversation this morning:
> >
> > The DCMI Point scheme ( http://www.dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-point/ )
> > lists coordinates as North and East.
> >
> > The GNIS at USGS (
> > http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnis/web_query.gnis_web_query_form ) lists
> > coordinates as North and West (i.e. enter Patuxent and Maryland in a query
> > to get the coordinates).
> >
> > I'd expect Dublin Core would want to be consistent with the GNIS since it's
> > widely used and could be used to auto-enter coordinates into a Dublin Core
> > metadata record form.
> >
> > John
> >
> > John Kane PhD
> > Information Systems Division [log in to unmask]
> > National Agricultural Library ph. 301 504-6400
> > fax 301 504-7473
>
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> [log in to unmask] CSIRO Exploration & Mining
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