Jordan Transverse Mercator

Jordan Transverse Mercator (JTM) (Arabic: نظام تربيع ميركاتور الأردني المستعرض) is a grid system created by the Royal Jordan Geographic Center (RJGC). This system is based on 6° belts with a Central Meridian of 37° East and a Scale Factor at Origin (mo) = 0.9998. The JTM is based on the Hayford ellipsoid adopted by the IUGG in 1924. No transformation parameters are presently offered by the government. However, Prof. Stephen H. Savage of Arizona State University provides the following parameters for the projection:

Jordan Transverse Mercator Geographic Coordinate System: GCS_International_1924 Datum: D:International_1924 Spheroid: International_1924 Axis: 6378388 Flattening: 297 Prime Meridian: Greenwich Prime Meridian Longitude: 0 Units: Degree Unit Scale Factor: 0.017453292519943295

Projection: Transverse Mercator False Easting: 500,000 False Northing: -3,000,000 Central Meridian: 37 Scale Factor: 0.9998 Central Parallel: 0 Units: Meter Scale Factor 1 Three-parameter transformation to WGS84 is: ΔX = –86 meters ΔY = –98 meters ΔZ = –119 meters

Prof. Savage also offers software, ReprojectME!, which will convert coordinates between JTM and other systems. (See http://daahl.ucsd.edu/gaialab/# for more information.)

The central meridian of 37° East is roughly midway between the extremes of Jordan: the Karameh Border Crossing with Iraq is close to 39° East, while the city of Aqaba on the Red Sea is close to 35° East.