UTM to Latitude and Longitude Converter

How the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Coordinate System Works

This bidirectional converter transforms coordinates between Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) easting/northing meters and WGS84 latitude and longitude (DD, DMS, and DDM) using 6th-order Karney–Krüger transverse Mercator series on the WGS84 ellipsoid (a = 6,378,137 m, f = 1 / 298.257223563, central meridian scale factor k₀ = 0.9996). Between 80°S and 84°N latitude, the UTM grid divides Earth into 60 longitudinal zones, each 6° wide and numbered 1 to 60 eastward starting at the 180° antimeridian (so Zone 1 spans 180°W to 174°W with central meridian 177°W, and the contiguous United States spans Zones 10 through 19).

Understanding Easting, Northing, and MGRS Latitude Bands

• Easting (Meters East/West of Central Meridian): Each 6° zone’s central meridian is assigned a false easting of 500,000 meters so all easting coordinates across the zone remain positive (typically ranging from roughly 160,000 mE at the western edge to 834,000 mE at the eastern edge at the Equator).
• Northing (Meters from the Equator): In the Northern Hemisphere, northing begins at 0 mN at the Equator and increases northward toward 9,329,000 mN at 84°N. In the Southern Hemisphere, the Equator is assigned a false northing of 10,000,000 mN and values decrease southward toward the South Pole.
• Latitude Band Letters (C through X) vs. N/S Hemisphere: MGRS/UTM grid notation uses 20 latitude bands 8° tall labeled C through X (omitting I and O). Note that bands C through M lie in the Southern Hemisphere and bands N through X lie in the Northern Hemisphere—so a coordinate written as 17S 713473 3962077 in North Carolina is in Latitude Band S (32°N–40°N, Northern Hemisphere), not the Southern Hemisphere.

Special Grid Zone Exceptions and Polar Coverage

Our converter implements the two NATO/NGA special UTM zone width exceptions: Zone 32V in southwestern Norway is widened westward to 9° (3°E–12°E, narrowing 31V to 3°), and across Svalbard (Band X, 72°N–84°N) Zones 32X, 34X, and 36X are omitted while 31X, 33X, 35X, and 37X are widened. Latitudes poleward of 84°N or 80°S lie in the Universal Polar Stereographic (UPS) region outside standard UTM. Compare formats on the GPS Coordinate Converter or find county boundaries at those coordinates on Coordinates to County Lookup.