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IERS Reference Meridian

The IERS Reference Meridian (IRM), also called the International Reference Meridian, is the prime meridian (0° longitude) maintained by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS). It passes about 5.3 arcseconds east of George Biddell Airy's 1851 transit circle which is 102 metres (335 ft) at the latitude of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.[1][2][a] Thus it differs slightly from the historical Greenwich Meridian.

class=notpageimage|
Modern IERS Reference Meridian on Earth
Countries that touch the Equator (red) and the Prime Meridian (blue)

It is the reference meridian of the Global Positioning System (GPS) operated by the United States Space Force, and of WGS 84 and its two formal versions, the ideal International Terrestrial Reference System (ITRS) and its realization, the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF).

Location edit

The most important reason for the 5.3 seconds of longitude offset between the IERS Reference Meridian and the Airy transit circle is that the observations with the transit circle were based on the local vertical, while the IERS Reference is a geodetic longitude, that is, the plane of the meridian contains the center of mass of the Earth.[1]

The International Hydrographic Organization adopted an early version of the IRM in 1983 for all nautical charts.[3] It was adopted for air navigation by the International Civil Aviation Organization on 3 March 1989.[4] Tectonic plates slowly move over the surface of Earth, so most countries have adopted for their maps an IRM version fixed relative to their own tectonic plate as it existed at the beginning of a specific year. Examples include the North American Datum 1983 (NAD83), the European Terrestrial Reference Frame 1989 (ETRF89), and the Geocentric Datum of Australia 1994 (GDA94). Versions fixed to a tectonic plate differ from the global version by at most a few centimetres.

The IERS system is not quite fixed to any point attached to the Earth. For example, all points on the European portion of the Eurasian plate, including the Royal Observatory, are moving northeast at about 2.5 cm per year relative to it. The IRM is the weighted average (in the least squares sense) of the reference meridians of the hundreds of ground stations contributing to the IERS network. The network includes GPS stations, satellite laser ranging (SLR) stations, lunar laser ranging (LLR) stations, and the highly accurate very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) stations.[5] All stations' coordinates are adjusted annually to remove net rotation relative to the major tectonic plates. If earth had only two hemispherical plates moving relative to each other around any axis which intersects their centres or their junction, then the longitudes (around any other rotation axis) of any two, diametrically opposite, stations must move in opposite directions by the same amount. The 180th meridian (the meridian at 180° both east and west of the Prime Meridian) is opposite the IERS Reference Meridian and forms a great circle with it dividing the earth into Western Hemisphere and Eastern Hemisphere.

Universal Time is notionally based on the prime meridian.[6] Because of changes in the rate of Earth's rotation, standard international time UTC can differ from the mean observed solar time at noon on the prime meridian by up to 0.9 of a second. Leap seconds are inserted periodically to keep UTC close to Earth's angular position relative to the Sun; see mean solar time.

List of places edit

Starting at the North Pole and heading south to the South Pole, the IERS Reference Meridian passes through eight countries:

Co-ordinates
(approximate)
Country, territory or sea Notes
90°0′N 0°0′E / 90.000°N 0.000°E / 90.000; 0.000 (North Pole) Arctic Ocean
85°46′N 0°0′E / 85.767°N 0.000°E / 85.767; 0.000 (EEZ of Greenland (Denmark)) Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Greenland (Denmark)
81°39′N 0°0′E / 81.650°N 0.000°E / 81.650; 0.000 (Greenland Sea) Greenland Sea
80°29′N 0°0′E / 80.483°N 0.000°E / 80.483; 0.000 (EEZ of Svalbard (Norway)) EEZ of Svalbard (Norway)
76°11′N 0°0′E / 76.183°N 0.000°E / 76.183; 0.000 (International waters) International waters
73°44′N 0°0′E / 73.733°N 0.000°E / 73.733; 0.000 (EEZ of Jan Mayen) EEZ of Jan Mayen (Norway)
72°53′N 0°0′E / 72.883°N 0.000°E / 72.883; 0.000 (Norwegian Sea) Norwegian Sea
69°7′N 0°0′E / 69.117°N 0.000°E / 69.117; 0.000 (International waters) International waters
64°42′N 0°0′E / 64.700°N 0.000°E / 64.700; 0.000 (EEZ of Norway) EEZ of Norway
63°29′N 0°0′E / 63.483°N 0.000°E / 63.483; 0.000 (EEZ of Great Britain) EEZ of Great Britain
61°0′N 0°0′E / 61.000°N 0.000°E / 61.000; 0.000 (North Sea) North Sea
53°46′N 0°0′E / 53.767°N 0.000°E / 53.767; 0.000 (United Kingdom)   United Kingdom From Tunstall in East Riding to Peacehaven, passing through Greenwich
50°47′N 0°0′E / 50.783°N 0.000°E / 50.783; 0.000 (English Channel) English Channel EEZ of Great Britain
50°14′N 0°0′E / 50.233°N 0.000°E / 50.233; 0.000 (EEZ of France) English Channel EEZ of France
49°20′N 0°0′E / 49.333°N 0.000°E / 49.333; 0.000 (France)   France From Villers-sur-Mer to Gavarnie
42°41′N 0°0′E / 42.683°N 0.000°E / 42.683; 0.000 (Spain)   Spain From Cilindro de Marboré to Castellón de la Plana
39°56′N 0°0′E / 39.933°N 0.000°E / 39.933; 0.000 (Mediterranean Sea) Mediterranean Sea Gulf of Valencia; EEZ of Spain
38°52′N 0°0′E / 38.867°N 0.000°E / 38.867; 0.000 (Spain)   Spain From El Verger to Calp
38°38′N 0°0′E / 38.633°N 0.000°E / 38.633; 0.000 (Mediterranean Sea) Mediterranean Sea EEZ of Spain
37°1′N 0°0′E / 37.017°N 0.000°E / 37.017; 0.000 (EEZ of Algeria) Mediterranean Sea EEZ of Algeria
35°50′N 0°0′E / 35.833°N 0.000°E / 35.833; 0.000 (Algeria)   Algeria From Stidia to Algeria-Mali border near Bordj Badji Mokhtar
21°52′N 0°0′E / 21.867°N 0.000°E / 21.867; 0.000 (Mali)   Mali Passing through Gao
15°00′N 0°0′E / 15.000°N 0.000°E / 15.000; 0.000 (Burkina Faso)   Burkina Faso
11°7′N 0°0′E / 11.117°N 0.000°E / 11.117; 0.000 (Togo)   Togo For about 600 m
11°6′N 0°0′E / 11.100°N 0.000°E / 11.100; 0.000 (Ghana)   Ghana For about 16 km
10°58′N 0°0′E / 10.967°N 0.000°E / 10.967; 0.000 (Togo)   Togo For about 39 km
10°37′N 0°0′E / 10.617°N 0.000°E / 10.617; 0.000 (Ghana)   Ghana From the Togo-Ghana border near Bunkpurugu to Tema
Passing through Lake Volta at 7°46′N 0°0′E / 7.767°N 0.000°E / 7.767; 0.000 (Lake Volta)
5°37′N 0°0′E / 5.617°N 0.000°E / 5.617; 0.000 (EEZ of Ghana in Atlantic Ocean) Atlantic Ocean EEZ of Ghana
1°58′N 0°0′E / 1.967°N 0.000°E / 1.967; 0.000 (International waters) International waters
0°0′N 0°0′E / 0.000°N 0.000°E / 0.000; 0.000 (Equator) Passing through the Equator (see Null Island)
51°43′S 0°0′E / 51.717°S 0.000°E / -51.717; 0.000 (EEZ of Bouvet Island) EEZ of Bouvet Island (Norway)
57°13′S 0°0′E / 57.217°S 0.000°E / -57.217; 0.000 (International waters) International waters
60°0′S 0°0′E / 60.000°S 0.000°E / -60.000; 0.000 (Southern Ocean) Southern Ocean International waters
69°36′S 0°0′E / 69.600°S 0.000°E / -69.600; 0.000 (Antarctica) Antarctica Queen Maud Land, claimed by   Norway
90°0′S 0°0′E / 90.000°S 0.000°E / -90.000; 0.000 (Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station) Antarctica Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station,   United States South Pole

See also edit

References edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ The astronomic latitude of the Royal Observatory is 51°28'38"N whereas its latitude on the European Terrestrial Reference Frame (1989) datum is 51°28'40.1247"N.

Citations edit

  1. ^ a b Malys, Stephen; Seago, John H.; Palvis, Nikolaos K.; Seidelmann, P. Kenneth; Kaplan, George H. (1 August 2015). "Why the Greenwich meridian moved". Journal of Geodesy. 89 (12): 1263–1272. Bibcode:2015JGeod..89.1263M. doi:10.1007/s00190-015-0844-y.
  2. ^ IRM on grounds of Royal Observatory from Google Earth Accessed 30 March 2012
  3. ^ (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-09-10. Retrieved 2012-03-28. (4.89 MB) Section 2.4.4.
  4. ^ WGS 84 Implementation Manual 2008-10-03 at the Wayback Machine page i, 1998
  5. ^ McCarthy, Dennis D.; Petit, Gérard, eds. (2004), "Conventional Terrestrial Reference System and Frame", IERS Conventions (2003) (Technical report), IERS Technical Note, 32, retrieved 2021-07-23
  6. ^ ITU Radiocommunication Assembly (2002). "Standard-frequency and time-signal emissions" (PDF). International Telecommunication Union. Retrieved 5 February 2022.

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This article is about Earth s current international standard prime meridian For the historical prime meridian see Prime meridian Greenwich For the general concept see prime meridian The IERS Reference Meridian IRM also called the International Reference Meridian is the prime meridian 0 longitude maintained by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service IERS It passes about 5 3 arcseconds east of George Biddell Airy s 1851 transit circle which is 102 metres 335 ft at the latitude of the Royal Observatory Greenwich 1 2 a Thus it differs slightly from the historical Greenwich Meridian 0 class notpageimage Modern IERS Reference Meridian on Earth Countries that touch the Equator red and the Prime Meridian blue It is the reference meridian of the Global Positioning System GPS operated by the United States Space Force and of WGS 84 and its two formal versions the ideal International Terrestrial Reference System ITRS and its realization the International Terrestrial Reference Frame ITRF Contents 1 Location 2 List of places 3 See also 4 References 4 1 Notes 4 2 CitationsLocation editThe most important reason for the 5 3 seconds of longitude offset between the IERS Reference Meridian and the Airy transit circle is that the observations with the transit circle were based on the local vertical while the IERS Reference is a geodetic longitude that is the plane of the meridian contains the center of mass of the Earth 1 The International Hydrographic Organization adopted an early version of the IRM in 1983 for all nautical charts 3 It was adopted for air navigation by the International Civil Aviation Organization on 3 March 1989 4 Tectonic plates slowly move over the surface of Earth so most countries have adopted for their maps an IRM version fixed relative to their own tectonic plate as it existed at the beginning of a specific year Examples include the North American Datum 1983 NAD83 the European Terrestrial Reference Frame 1989 ETRF89 and the Geocentric Datum of Australia 1994 GDA94 Versions fixed to a tectonic plate differ from the global version by at most a few centimetres The IERS system is not quite fixed to any point attached to the Earth For example all points on the European portion of the Eurasian plate including the Royal Observatory are moving northeast at about 2 5 cm per year relative to it The IRM is the weighted average in the least squares sense of the reference meridians of the hundreds of ground stations contributing to the IERS network The network includes GPS stations satellite laser ranging SLR stations lunar laser ranging LLR stations and the highly accurate very long baseline interferometry VLBI stations 5 All stations coordinates are adjusted annually to remove net rotation relative to the major tectonic plates If earth had only two hemispherical plates moving relative to each other around any axis which intersects their centres or their junction then the longitudes around any other rotation axis of any two diametrically opposite stations must move in opposite directions by the same amount The 180th meridian the meridian at 180 both east and west of the Prime Meridian is opposite the IERS Reference Meridian and forms a great circle with it dividing the earth into Western Hemisphere and Eastern Hemisphere Universal Time is notionally based on the prime meridian 6 Because of changes in the rate of Earth s rotation standard international time UTC can differ from the mean observed solar time at noon on the prime meridian by up to 0 9 of a second Leap seconds are inserted periodically to keep UTC close to Earth s angular position relative to the Sun see mean solar time List of places editMap all coordinates using OpenStreetMap Download coordinates as KML GPX all coordinates GPX primary coordinates GPX secondary coordinates Starting at the North Pole and heading south to the South Pole the IERS Reference Meridian passes through eight countries Co ordinates approximate Country territory or sea Notes 90 0 N 0 0 E 90 000 N 0 000 E 90 000 0 000 North Pole Arctic Ocean 85 46 N 0 0 E 85 767 N 0 000 E 85 767 0 000 EEZ of Greenland Denmark Exclusive Economic Zone EEZ of Greenland Denmark 81 39 N 0 0 E 81 650 N 0 000 E 81 650 0 000 Greenland Sea Greenland Sea 80 29 N 0 0 E 80 483 N 0 000 E 80 483 0 000 EEZ of Svalbard Norway EEZ of Svalbard Norway 76 11 N 0 0 E 76 183 N 0 000 E 76 183 0 000 International waters International waters 73 44 N 0 0 E 73 733 N 0 000 E 73 733 0 000 EEZ of Jan Mayen EEZ of Jan Mayen Norway 72 53 N 0 0 E 72 883 N 0 000 E 72 883 0 000 Norwegian Sea Norwegian Sea 69 7 N 0 0 E 69 117 N 0 000 E 69 117 0 000 International waters International waters 64 42 N 0 0 E 64 700 N 0 000 E 64 700 0 000 EEZ of Norway EEZ of Norway 63 29 N 0 0 E 63 483 N 0 000 E 63 483 0 000 EEZ of Great Britain EEZ of Great Britain 61 0 N 0 0 E 61 000 N 0 000 E 61 000 0 000 North Sea North Sea 53 46 N 0 0 E 53 767 N 0 000 E 53 767 0 000 United Kingdom nbsp United Kingdom From Tunstall in East Riding to Peacehaven passing through Greenwich 50 47 N 0 0 E 50 783 N 0 000 E 50 783 0 000 English Channel English Channel EEZ of Great Britain 50 14 N 0 0 E 50 233 N 0 000 E 50 233 0 000 EEZ of France English Channel EEZ of France 49 20 N 0 0 E 49 333 N 0 000 E 49 333 0 000 France nbsp France From Villers sur Mer to Gavarnie 42 41 N 0 0 E 42 683 N 0 000 E 42 683 0 000 Spain nbsp Spain From Cilindro de Marbore to Castellon de la Plana 39 56 N 0 0 E 39 933 N 0 000 E 39 933 0 000 Mediterranean Sea Mediterranean Sea Gulf of Valencia EEZ of Spain 38 52 N 0 0 E 38 867 N 0 000 E 38 867 0 000 Spain nbsp Spain From El Verger to Calp 38 38 N 0 0 E 38 633 N 0 000 E 38 633 0 000 Mediterranean Sea Mediterranean Sea EEZ of Spain 37 1 N 0 0 E 37 017 N 0 000 E 37 017 0 000 EEZ of Algeria Mediterranean Sea EEZ of Algeria 35 50 N 0 0 E 35 833 N 0 000 E 35 833 0 000 Algeria nbsp Algeria From Stidia to Algeria Mali border near Bordj Badji Mokhtar 21 52 N 0 0 E 21 867 N 0 000 E 21 867 0 000 Mali nbsp Mali Passing through Gao 15 00 N 0 0 E 15 000 N 0 000 E 15 000 0 000 Burkina Faso nbsp Burkina Faso 11 7 N 0 0 E 11 117 N 0 000 E 11 117 0 000 Togo nbsp Togo For about 600 m 11 6 N 0 0 E 11 100 N 0 000 E 11 100 0 000 Ghana nbsp Ghana For about 16 km 10 58 N 0 0 E 10 967 N 0 000 E 10 967 0 000 Togo nbsp Togo For about 39 km 10 37 N 0 0 E 10 617 N 0 000 E 10 617 0 000 Ghana nbsp Ghana From the Togo Ghana border near Bunkpurugu to TemaPassing through Lake Volta at 7 46 N 0 0 E 7 767 N 0 000 E 7 767 0 000 Lake Volta 5 37 N 0 0 E 5 617 N 0 000 E 5 617 0 000 EEZ of Ghana in Atlantic Ocean Atlantic Ocean EEZ of Ghana 1 58 N 0 0 E 1 967 N 0 000 E 1 967 0 000 International waters International waters 0 0 N 0 0 E 0 000 N 0 000 E 0 000 0 000 Equator Passing through the Equator see Null Island 51 43 S 0 0 E 51 717 S 0 000 E 51 717 0 000 EEZ of Bouvet Island EEZ of Bouvet Island Norway 57 13 S 0 0 E 57 217 S 0 000 E 57 217 0 000 International waters International waters 60 0 S 0 0 E 60 000 S 0 000 E 60 000 0 000 Southern Ocean Southern Ocean International waters 69 36 S 0 0 E 69 600 S 0 000 E 69 600 0 000 Antarctica Antarctica Queen Maud Land claimed by nbsp Norway 90 0 S 0 0 E 90 000 S 0 000 E 90 000 0 000 Amundsen Scott South Pole Station Antarctica Amundsen Scott South Pole Station nbsp United States South PoleSee also edit1st meridian east 1st meridian west 180th meridian Coordinated Universal Time Prime meridian Prime meridian Greenwich References editNotes edit The astronomic latitude of the Royal Observatory is 51 28 38 N whereas its latitude on the European Terrestrial Reference Frame 1989 datum is 51 28 40 1247 N Citations edit a b Malys Stephen Seago John H Palvis Nikolaos K Seidelmann P Kenneth Kaplan George H 1 August 2015 Why the Greenwich meridian moved Journal of Geodesy 89 12 1263 1272 Bibcode 2015JGeod 89 1263M doi 10 1007 s00190 015 0844 y IRM on grounds of Royal Observatory from Google Earth Accessed 30 March 2012 A manual on the technical aspects of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 PDF Archived from the original PDF on 2008 09 10 Retrieved 2012 03 28 4 89 MB Section 2 4 4 WGS 84 Implementation Manual Archived 2008 10 03 at the Wayback Machine page i 1998 McCarthy Dennis D Petit Gerard eds 2004 Conventional Terrestrial Reference System and Frame IERS Conventions 2003 Technical report IERS Technical Note 32 retrieved 2021 07 23 ITU Radiocommunication Assembly 2002 Standard frequency and time signal emissions PDF International Telecommunication Union Retrieved 5 February 2022 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title IERS Reference Meridian amp oldid 1215727042, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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