Also since a Transverse Mercator projection results in extreme distortion in polar areas, the UTM zones are limited to 80°S and 84°N latitudes. Polar regions (below 80°S and above 84°N) use the UPS - Universal Polar Stereographic coordinate system based on the Polar Stereographic projection. The narrow width (6° of longitude) of each zone ensures minimal scale distortion within a zone. Also a map derived from a secant cylinder has less overall distortion than a map from a tangent cylinder. The scale is true (scale factor = 1) on each of the standard meridians meaning that there is no distortion along these lines. Between the secant lines, where the cylinder is inside the globe, features appear smaller than in reality and scale factor is less than 1. The central meridian has a scale factor of 0.9996. At places on map where the cylinder is outside the globe, features appear larger than in reality and scale factor is greater than 1. The scale error within each UTM projection zone remains less than 0.1 percent, or in other words scale distortion is kept to less than 1 part in 1000. Naturally for areas that span more than one UTM zone, the distortion and error increase. The Mercator and Transverse Mercator projections are conformal projections. In a conformal projection local angles are preserved and shapes are represented accurately and without distortion for small areas. As a result of preserving angles and shapes, area or size of features are distorted in these maps. UTM grid zones on a projected map of the world © Wikimedia Commons UTM Zone As mentioned, choosing a secant projection and a narrow zone minimizes the distortions in a map generated from UTM projection. UTM zones are numbered from 1 to 60 starting from 180° longitude at the International Date Line and proceeding eastward. Therefore Zone 1 lies between 180°W to 174°W longitude lines, Zone 2 is between 174°W and 168°W longitude lines, and Zone 60 lies between 174☎ and 180° (International Date Line) longitude lines. UTM Zone - northern hemisphere © Wikimedia CommonsĮach zone is divided into horizontal bands 8° of latitude wide. The 20 bands are labeled with letters, beginning with C and ending with X from south to north.

Utm map for myanmar