Meridian (geography)

In geography and geodesy, a meridian is the locus connecting points of equal longitude, which is the angle (in degrees or other units) east or west of a given prime meridian (currently, the IERS Reference Meridian).[1] In other words, it is a line of longitude. The position of a point along the meridian is given by that longitude and its latitude, measured in angular degrees north or south of the Equator. On a Mercator projection or on a Gall-Peters projection, each meridian is perpendicular to all circles of latitude. A meridian is half of a great circle on Earth's surface. The length of a meridian on a modern ellipsoid model of Earth (WGS 84) has been estimated as 20,003.93 km (12,429.87 mi).[2]

For the astronomical concept, see Meridian (astronomy). For other uses, see Meridian.
Meridians run between the North and South poles.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Meridian (geography), and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.