mercator projections

Hello,

Is anyone a mercator projection location with GRASS?
I am trying to create a new location in a mercator
projection and I am not having much luck.
In setting up the new region, GRASS asks me for the
units and a conversion factor to meters. The units
for a mercator projection are degrees. Does GRASS
convert the degrees to meters? And the conversion
factor is different for lat and lon. I am confused.
Has anyone successfully done this?

Thanks.

-Stephen Dzurenko
Ocean Mapping Division
Ocean Technology Center
Graduate School of Oceanography
University of Rhode Island

ph: 401 792-6853
fx: 401 792-6849
e-mail: steve@ocean.oce.uri.edu

"Steve" == Steve Dzurenko <steve@ocean.oce.uri.EDU> writes:

    Steve> Hello,

    Steve> Is anyone a mercator projection location with GRASS? I am
    Steve> trying to create a new location in a mercator projection
    Steve> and I am not having much luck. In setting up the new
    Steve> region, GRASS asks me for the units and a conversion factor
    Steve> to meters. The units for a mercator projection are
    Steve> degrees. Does GRASS convert the degrees to meters? And
    Steve> the conversion factor is different for lat and lon. I am
    Steve> confused. Has anyone successfully done this?

    Steve> Thanks.

    Steve> -Stephen Dzurenko
    Steve> Ocean Mapping Division
    Steve> Ocean Technology Center
    Steve> Graduate School of Oceanography
    Steve> University of Rhode Island

    Steve> ph: 401 792-6853
    Steve> fx: 401 792-6849
    Steve> e-mail: steve@ocean.oce.uri.edu

Steve,

I've digitized, in GRASS 4.1.3, some NOAA charts which used the
Mercator projection. When setting up the GRASS location, I specified
the `merc' projection and GRASS asked me for an ellipsoid, a ``Central
Meridian'', and a ``Latitude of True Scale'' (these are in quotes
because I'm not sure what they mean). I used the *default* central
meridian and the ellipsoid and latitude of true scale specified on the
chart. After all that, it asked be for the ground units, which I
chose to be meters. I was later able to reproject the digitized charts
into UTM and state plane coordinates without difficulty. I can't tell
you how GRASS deals with the projection internally, but for me it
seemed to work.

Hope this helps.

Bill.

--
Bill Perkins
Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories
Environmental Sciences Center, Subsurface Flow and Transport
P.O. Box 999 MSIN K9-36
Richland, Washington, USA 99352 (509) 372-6131
wa_perkins@pnl.gov