Secant Cylinders Are Evil—A Case Study on the Standard Lines of the Universal Transverse Mercator and Universal Polar Stereographic Projections

The literature usually calls downscaled versions of basic conformal map projections “secant”, referring to conceptual developable map surfaces that intersect the reference frame. However, recent studies pointed out on the examples of various mappings of the sphere that this model may lead to incorre...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Krisztián Kerkovits
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-02-01
Series:ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/13/2/56
Description
Summary:The literature usually calls downscaled versions of basic conformal map projections “secant”, referring to conceptual developable map surfaces that intersect the reference frame. However, recent studies pointed out on the examples of various mappings of the sphere that this model may lead to incorrect conclusions. In this study, we examine the paradigm of secant surfaces for two popular map projections of the ellipsoid, the UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) and the UPS (Universal Polar Stereographic) projections. Results will show that ellipsoidal map projections can exhibit further anomalies. To support the shift to a paradigm avoiding developable map surfaces, this study recommends the new term <i>reduced</i> map projection with a proper and simple definition to be used instead of <i>secant</i> map projections.
ISSN:2220-9964