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>I need information, preferably something that I can cite, which discusses the
>background history of the universal transverse mercator grid system (UTM).  I
>specifically need to know who devised the sytem and when.  Thank you for any
>leads you can provide.
 
According to John P. Snyder's standard reference, Map Projections -- A Working
Manual: USGS Prof. Paper 1395, the Transverse Mercator projection was invented
by Lambert around 1772, but did not come into common use until the 20th century.
"The Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) projection and grid were adopted by the
U.S. Army in 1947 for designating rectangular coordinates on large-scale
military
maps of the entire world."  pg. 57
 
 
 
>        I am planning on doing some atmospheric radio noise measurements
>in the Southwest (probably New Mexico) and would like to obtain an
>azimuthal equidistant projection world map centered on (or near) the
>test site.  I would appreciate any suggestions.
 
This sounds like a job for a computer.  Do you really need a map of the entire
world, and if so, what kinds of features do you need on it?  Using a standard
GIS, such as Arc/Info, and a standard world database, such as ArcWorld,
you can generate your own map for any location.
 
The projection parameters for an azimuthal equidistant projection are:
  radius of the sphere        usually 6370997 meters
  longitude of your center
  latitude of your center
  any false northing or easting
 
According to my references, your immediate hemisphere looks good, but the
outer hemisphere greatly distorts shapes and areas.  The projection will give
the true distance and direction from the center to any other point on Earth,
but at the expense of other characteristics.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Liebermann ----- [log in to unmask], (702)-887-7623, fax-7629 -----
---- U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division, Carson City, Nevada ----