Longitudes and latitudes must be entered in degrees and minutes with an indicator of which hemisphere they are in. Entered latitudes must be geographic (i.e. geodetic), rather than geocentric. (Atlases always give geographic latitudes).
Longitudes and latitude must have at least two elements:
•A degree number (i.e. 0 to 180 for longitude, 0 to 90 for latitude)
•A hemisphere code (i.e. E or W for longitude, N or S for latitude)
Optionally there may also be:
•A minutes of arc number (i.e. 0, 1, 2, 3, ..., 59)
•A seconds of arc number (i.e. 0, 1, 2, 3, ..., 59)
Separators between the elements within the time may be any of the following:
blank( ); slash(/); period(.); colon(:); semi-colon(;) or comma(,)
Some examples of valid longitudes are as follows.
0W 0W0 149E38 78W23 45 E 167 52
Some examples of valid latitudes are as follows.
0S 0N0 17S58 62N17 59 S 45 23