Military Grid Reference System - Squares That Cross A Latitude Band Boundary

Squares That Cross A Latitude Band Boundary

The boundaries of the latitude bands are parallel circles (dashed black lines in figure 1), which do not coincide with the boundaries of the 100,000-meter squares (blue lines in figure 1). For example, at the boundary between grid zones 1P and 1Q, we find a 100,000-meter square BT, of which about two thirds is south of latitude 16° and therefore in grid zone 1P, while one third is north of 16° and therefore in 1Q. So, an MGRS grid reference for a position in BT should begin with 1PBT in the south part of BT, and with 1QBT in the north part of BT. At least, this is possible if the precision of the grid reference is enough to place the denoted area completely inside either 1P or 1Q.

But an MGRS grid reference can denote an area that crosses a latitude band boundary. For example, when describing the entire square BT, should it be called 1PBT or 1QBT? Or when describing the 1000-meter square BT8569, should it be called 1PBT8569 or 1QBT8569? In these cases, software that interprets an MGRS grid reference should accept both of the possible latitude band letters. A practical motivation was given in the release notes for GEOTRANS, Release 2.0.2, 1999:

The MGRS module was changed to make the final latitude check on MGRS to UTM conversions sensitive to the precision of the input MGRS coordinate string. The lower the input precision, the more "slop" is allowed in the final check on the latitude zone letter. This is to handle an issue raised by some F-16 pilots, who truncate MGRS strings that they receive from the Army. This truncation can put them on the wrong side of a latitude zone boundary, causing the truncated MGRS string to be considered invalid. The correction causes truncated strings to be considered valid if any part of the square which they denote lies within the latitude zone specified by the third letter of the string.