World Geodetic System

The World Geodetic System (WGS) is a standard for use in cartography, geodesy, and navigation including GPS. It comprises a standard coordinate system for the Earth, a standard spheroidal reference surface (the datum or reference ellipsoid) for raw altitude data, and a gravitational equipotential surface (the geoid) that defines the nominal sea level.

The latest revision is WGS 84 (a.k.a. WGS 1984, EPSG:4326), established in 1984 and last revised in 2004. Earlier schemes included WGS 72, WGS 66, and WGS 60. WGS 84 is the reference coordinate system used by the Global Positioning System.

The coordinate origin of WGS 84 is meant to be located at the Earth's center of mass; the error is believed to be less than 2 cm.

The WGS 84 meridian of zero longitude is the IERS Reference Meridian, 5.31 arc seconds or 102.5 metres (336.3 ft) east of the Greenwich meridian at the latitude of the Royal Observatory.

The WGS 84 datum surface is an oblate spheroid (ellipsoid) with major (equatorial) radius a = 6378137 m at the equator and flattening f = 1/298.257223563. The polar semi-minor axis b then equals a times (1 − f), or 6356752.3142 m.

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