[Proj] MGRS invented by Germany?

[Charles Karney]

The paper says

   This grid reference system was, in an abbreviated way, then called
   "UTM-REF" (Universales Transversales Mercator-Referenzsystem), its
   name being derived from the internationally common term "Transversale
   Mercator-Abbildung" ("Transverse Mercator Projection") for the
   Gauss-Krueger "Abbildung".


On 01/22/2016 05:39 PM, Melita Kennedy wrote:
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>>
>> Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2016 10:31:18 -0500
>> From: Charles Karney <charles.karney at sri.com>
>> Subject: [Proj] MGRS invented by Germany?
>> To: PROJ.4 and general Projections Discussions
>> 	<proj at lists.maptools.org>
>>
>> This paper
>>
>>    M. F. Buchroithner and R. Pfahlbusch,
>>    "Geodetic grids in authoritative maps -- new
>>    findings about the origin of the UTM grid" (2016)
>>    http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15230406.2015.1128851
>>
>> has some interesting background on the origins of UTM and MGRS.
>>
>> In particular, the division of non-polar regions into 60 zones, the
>> numbering of the zones, and the specific conventions adopted for MGRS
>> all seem to have been borrowed by the US Army Map Service from the
>> German military work in 1943-1944.
>>
>> Figures 3 and 8 show 2 wartime orthophotos of 1km squares in Estonia and
>> Lithuania with designations (UTMREF), 35VLF6992 and 34UEG0578, which
>> coincide with the present-day MGRS designations for these areas
>> (respectively 59.451N 24.698E and 55.752N 21.088E).
>>
>> (The correspondence isn't exact because of differences in the datum and
>> in the choice of the scale on the central meridian.)
>>
>> --
>> Charles Karney <charles.karney at sri.com>
>> SRI International, Princeton, NJ 08543-5300
>
>
> That looks like a very interesting article. Thank you for posting about it.
> I've put in a request for our library to get a copy. Do they explain why "UTMREF"
> was used? I would have expected UGKREF instead.
>
> Melita
>
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-- 
Charles Karney <charles.karney at sri.com>
SRI International, Princeton, NJ 08540-6449

Tel: +1 609 734 2312
Fax: +1 609 734 2662