PE&RS March 2001

Letter to the Editor
Grids and Datums – Republic of Poland
(PE&RS September 2000 Issue)

Dear Sirs,

Your article by Clifford J. Mugnier, C.P., C.M.S., describing Grids and Datums used in the Republic of Poland (PE&RS September 2000, pp. 1063-1064) contains some errors which I would like to eliminate.

According to my knowledge, most maps currently available in Poland, in scales 1:1,000,000 and bigger, use one of the following systems :

• System 1942 (S-42) — this system was (and perhaps still is) used on military maps, usually in scales 1:50,000, 1:100,000 and 1:200,000. This was the standard military system used on maps of Middle European countries that belonged to the Warsaw Treaty Pact. It uses the well known S-42 (Pulkovo 1942) map datum together with the Krassovsky 1940 Ellipsoid and Transverse Mercator (Gauss-Krueger type) grid in zones 6 degrees wide.
• System 1965 (Uklad 1965) — maps in scales 1:500, 1:1,000, 1:2,000, 1:5,000, 1:10,000, 1:25,000, 1:50,000 exist. The parameters of this system are still kept secret and little is known for sure. These given in the original article are, to the best of my knowledge, quite fine except an error in parameters for the Zone (Strefa) 3 which should be modified as follows: the False Easting 3,501 km and the False Northing 5,999 km. (This error comes from the fact that one copied the False Easting and the False Northing for Strefa 3 from parameters for Strefa 4. Parameters for the Strefa 4 are correct.) Additionally, the reference ellipsoid is Krassovsky 1940, the origin is Pulkovo (as in S-42 above) and one can define the approximate coverage of Zones as follows :
• GUGiK 1980 — maps in scales 1:25,000 and smaller; typically 1:100,000, some in scales 1:200,000, 1:500,000 do exist. This system uses the quasi-stereographic projection of the pre-WW-II Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny (WIG). The Latitude of Origin is 52 10 00 N (and not 52 12 00 N as given in the original article) and the Longitude of Origin is 19 10 00 E. The scale factor is designed to cancel any distortion in distance at a distance of 215 km from the Origin. This means, to the best of my knowledge, that the scale factor is equal to 0.999714285, which gives a reduction in distance from 20 cm /1 km around Swinoujscie (North-West of Poland) to +90 cm /1 km around Lesko (South-East of Poland). The Reference Ellipsoid is Krassovsky 1940 (the same as in S-42 above). The vertical map datum (heights above the sea level) is, most probably, based on the Kronsztadt standard.
• System 1992/19 (Panstwowy uklad wspolrzednych geodezyjnych 1992) — used with large-scale maps (often, for example, 1:10,000 - 1:50,000). Again, exact parameters of this system are kept secret. To the best of my knowledge, this system is based on the European Standard ETRF-89. The Reference Ellipsoid is GRS 1980, the grid used is Transverse Mercator (Gauss-Krueger type) in a 10 degrees wide zone (it covers all of Poland). Latitude of Origin is 00 00 00 N, Longitude of Origin is 19 00 00 E. Scale Factor at the Central Meridian is 0.9993, False Easting at Origin is +500 km, False Northing at Origin is (minus) -5,300 km. The vertical map datum (heights above the sea level) is based on the Kronsztadt ’86 standard.
• Systems 1992/15, 1992/18, 1992/21, 1992/24 — used with large-scale maps such as 1:1,000 - 1:10,000. I know very little about them. To the best of my knowledge, they are very similar to the System 1992/19 described above, except that zones are 3 degrees wide (that’s why one needs four zones to cover all of Poland), and the scale factor may possibly be equal to 0.999935.

Last, but not least, please note that most of the data about the systems used in Poland are still kept secret. That means that none of the numbers given above can really be trusted. I collected them from different publicly available sources, mainly Internet pages, but also Internet News, books, and maps themselves.

With best regards,
Jacek M. Holeczek
Institute of Physics
University of Silesia
ul. Uniwersytecka 4
40-007 Katowice
Poland

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