[GIS] Unknown set of coordinates Northing Westing

arcgis-desktoparcmapcoordinate systemcoordinates

I've been given a list of sites of vegetation with a "Northing/Westing" location e.g 

52 43.569 - 001 44.833

I want to convert them to Easting Northing so I can load them into ArcMap. I've tried to convert the original coordinates but having a hard time determining the best way.

The best method so far is to convert them to Long/Lat 

52.43569N / 1.44833W

in gridreferencefinder. However the location assigned to each record is different to the location found when using these new coordinates, off by about 20-30 miles.

Anyone know how to convert these locations to something more workable?

Best Answer

Looks like normal WGS48 coordinates with grad and decimal minutes. The correct conversion in decimal coordinates would be:

Lat: 52° 43.569' (N) -> 52.72615
Lon: 1° 44.833' (E)  -> 1.747217

Don't forget that minutes have max 60 counts so if you convert them into a decimal value divide it by 60. Negative values are West

Here is a easy example how to convert it with excel. Put each grad and minute value in one column:

excel example

The example formulas are:

E2 = A2+ROUND(B2/60/1000;6)
F2 = C2+ROUND(D2/60/1000;6)

I you are not sure you can always check a online conversion tool.

online conversion example

Hope that is correct and helping!

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