The Swiss coordinate system (or Swiss grid) is a geographic coordinate system

Geographic coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on the Earth to be specified by a set of numbers. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represent vertical position, and two or three of the numbers represent horizontal position...

 used in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 for maps and surveying

Surveying

See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...

 by the Swiss Federal Office of Topography (Swisstopo

Swisstopo

Swisstopo is the official name for the Swiss Federal Office of Topography , Switzerland's national mapping agency.The current pseudo-English name was made official in 2002...

).

The map projection

Map projection

A map projection is any method of representing the surface of a sphere or other three-dimensional body on a plane. Map projections are necessary for creating maps. All map projections distort the surface in some fashion...

 used is Oblique Mercator on an 1841 Bessel ellipsoid.

The geodetic datum CH1903 uses as fundamental point the old observatory of Bern (46°57′03.9"N 7°26′19.1"E (WGS84)), the current location of the Institut für exakte Wissenschaften of the University of Bern. In order to avoid errors during coordinate transmissions, the coordinates of this point are 600'000 m E / 200'000 m N. The 0 / 0 coordinate is located near Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. This definition invokes the following effects:

• All coordinates are always positive, since Switzerland
  Switzerland
  Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
  
   is located in the 1st quadrant
  Cartesian coordinate system
  A Cartesian coordinate system specifies each point uniquely in a plane by a pair of numerical coordinates, which are the signed distances from the point to two fixed perpendicular directed lines, measured in the same unit of length...
  
   of the coordinate system.
• Furthermore, the whole area of Switzerland is located below the y=x line of the coordinate system. Thus, all E-coordinates are always bigger than N-coordinates.

Devised for the national land survey of 1995 (LV 95 for Landesvermessung 1995), the CH1903+ datum is based on WGS84

World Geodetic System

The World Geodetic System is a standard for use in cartography, geodesy, and navigation. It comprises a standard coordinate frame for the Earth, a standard spheroidal reference surface for raw altitude data, and a gravitational equipotential surface that defines the nominal sea level.The latest...

. The coordinates of its new reference point, the Zimmerwald Observatory

Zimmerwald Observatory

Observatorium Zimmerwald is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the Astronomisches Institut der Universität Bern . Built in 1956, it is located 10 kilometers south of Bern, Switzerland near Zimmerwald.The 1 meter aperture ZIMLAT telescope was inaugurated in 1997.-External links:*...

, should maintain the CH1903 coordinates as far as possible. The easting and northing is increased by 2 and 1 million, respectively.

Coordinates of the Zimmerwald observatory in the old and new notations:

CH1903	y = 602 030.68 m	x = 191 775.03 m
CH1903+	E = 2 602 030.74 m	N = 1 191 775.03 m

External links

• Swisstopo
  Swisstopo
  Swisstopo is the official name for the Swiss Federal Office of Topography , Switzerland's national mapping agency.The current pseudo-English name was made official in 2002...
  
  : Swiss map projections
• Map Projections of Switzerland
• Converters CH1903 <-> WGS 84
  • NAVREF, Swisstopo
    Swisstopo
    Swisstopo is the official name for the Swiss Federal Office of Topography , Switzerland's national mapping agency.The current pseudo-English name was made official in 2002...
    
    
  • Umrechnung von Schweizer Landeskoordinaten in das WGS84-System, University of Potsdam
    University of Potsdam
    The University of Potsdam is a German university, situated across four campuses in Potsdam, Brandenburg, including the New Palace of Sanssouci and the Park Babelsberg.- Profile :...
    
    
• Online maps with search by Swiss coordinates:
  • http://map.geo.admin.ch (The official swiss geographic information system
    Geographic Information System
    A geographic information system, geographical information science, or geospatial information studies is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographically referenced data...
    
    (GIS) including the complete range of the swiss topographical maps)