At 22:31 -0500 02/12/4, Bruce Hebbard wrote:
The coordinates cited below are almost certainly ECEF or
"Earth Centered, Earth Fixed", as described by Peter H. Dana
(which is about all I know about this :)...
[begin quote]
* Earth centered, earth-fixed, X, Y, and Z, Cartesian coordinates
  (XYZ) define three dimensional positions with respect to the center
  of mass of the reference ellipsoid.
* The Z-axis points toward the North Pole.
* The X-axis is defined by the intersection of the plane defined by the
  prime meridian and the equatorial plane.
* The Y-axis completes a right handed orthogonal system by a plane
  90 degrees east of the X-axis and its intersection with the equator.
[end quote; from...
 http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/coordsys/coordsys_f.html
 <Peter H. Dana, The Geographer's Craft Project, Department of Geography,
  The University of Colorado at Boulder>
 see Coordinate Systems / Global Systems / ECEF X, Y, Z for links to a
 couple of handy diagrams]

The US National Geodetic Survey has a little interactive converter at
http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/TOOLS/XYZ/xyz.html; plugging in the XYZ values
you gave (in *meters*, he said, desperately trying to keep this on topic
:-), it spits out...
Fascinating!

And it also works the other way around : from now on my postal address will be:
X = 4269556.7194
Y = - 48024.6218
Z = 4722335.2744

(please note that the Z coordinate above refers to my favorite position, i.e. lying in my bed...)

Louis

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