NRI Grazing Land On-Site Data Collection
(03/23/20011) B-21
Location Format
Choose from 28 different formats from around the world. For NRCS work choose
“hddd°.mm‟.ss.ss” (Geographic, degrees, minutes, seconds) OR UTM UPS (Universal
Transverse Mercator, Universal Polar Stereographic).
Geographic coordinates are spherical and relate directly to the spherical earth‟s surface.
UTM/UPS are rectangular-meaning laid out in a rectangular grid-and relate directly to
rectangular coordinates on printed maps and Digital Ortho images (DOQs).
Coordinates are stored in the Map76 internally as hddd.ddddd° (decimal degrees, another
type of spherical coordinate).
State Plane coordinates are not available.
Map Datum
Choose from one of 100 datums available.
Geodetic datums define the size and shape of the earth and the origin and orientation
of the coordinate systems used to map the earth.
For NRCS work choose the GPS standard, WGS 84.
NRCS DOQs use NAD 83 as the horizontal datum.
Set to NAD 83 for navigation to points generated from NRCS geospatial data bases.
Coordinates are stored in the Map76 using the WGS 84 datum.
The data download software, MN DNR Garmin extension for Arcview 3.X GIS,
converts the data to NAD 83 during data download.
Warning: Use of the wrong datum can result in position errors of several to hundreds of
feet when comparing the position on the GPS Information Page with other sources, such
as topographic map sheets.
