GZD only, precision level 6° × 8° (in most cases) In instances where the polygon is not a square and has been clipped by a grid zone junction, the polygon keeps the label of the southwest corner as if it had not been clipped. Related to this is the primacy of the southwest corner of the polygon being the labeling point for an entire polygon. When changing precision levels, it is important to truncate rather than round the easting and northing values to ensure the more precise polygon will remain within the boundaries of the less precise polygon. (In some cases, squares adjacent to a Grid Zone Junction (GZJ) are clipped, so polygon is a better descriptor of these areas.) The number of digits in the numerical location must be even: 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10, depending on the desired precision.

When the term 'grid square' is used, it can refer to a square with a side length of 10 km (6 mi), 1 km, 100 m (328 ft), 10 m or 1 m, depending on the precision of the coordinates provided. 1234 5678 (numerical location easting is 1234 and northing is 5678, in this case specifying a location with 10 m resolution)Īn MGRS grid reference is a point reference system.FJ (the 100,000-meter square identifier).The MGRS is used as geocode for the entire Earth.Īn example of an MGRS coordinate, or grid reference, would be 4QFJ12345678, which consists of three parts: The MGRS is derived from the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid system and the Universal Polar Stereographic (UPS) grid system, but uses a different labeling convention. The Military Grid Reference System ( MGRS) is the geocoordinate standard used by NATO militaries for locating points on Earth.

World grid square map