AMG Vs UTM

[HMAS MB]

Not sure this goes here but it is a technical issue of sorts.

I got in to a debate last night with our local Shire ranger. He said that AMG is still used. I had thought that AMG had been dropped in favour of UTM. Any thoughts?

[EcoTeam]

The Australian Map Grid (AMG) is the name given to the UTM projection of the Australian Geodetic Datum (AGD).
There are two versions of these, the 1966 version (AMG66/AGD66) and the new 1984 version (AMG84/AGD66).

So basically, AMG *is* UTM

EcoDave

[HMAS MB]

I suspected that as they also said that we use 13 figure grid...which looked exactly like UTM without the Zone designator.

Tah for that

[Kerry]

Not sure this goes here but it is a technical issue of sorts.

I got in to a debate last night with our local Shire ranger. He said that AMG is still used. I had thought that AMG had been dropped in favour of UTM. Any thoughts?

Offically AMG doesn't really "exist" anymore as since Jan 1, 2000 when Australia changed from AGD to GDA then the equiv is now MGA (Map Grid of Australia) and more specifically MGA94.

In time AMG will be completely phased out and any new maps/charts etc as they are updated will be in MGA94 etc but of course AMG will be around in a historical sense for some time to come until all products have been updated.

As for the 1966 and 1984 version of AGD both are effectively based on the same spheriod (AGD) with the main difference between the 66 and 84 data sets being the extra data used/included in the adjustment, which in some instances produced shifts of up to 5 metres (or so).

So yeah basically AMG *is* UTM and so also MGA *is* UTM but rather a different "UTM" based on the reference origin and different spheroid parameters.


Cheers, Kerry.

[EcoTeam]

For reference, the horses mouth is here:
http://www.ga.gov.au/nmd/geodesy/datums/amg.jsp

EcoDave