Latitude
In geography , latitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the north – south position of a point on the Earth's surface. Latitude is an angle (defined below) which ranges from 0° at the Equator to 90° (North or South) at the poles. Lines of constant latitude, or parallels , run east–west as circles parallel to the equator. Latitude is used together with longitude to specify the precise location of features on the surface of the Earth. Without qualification the term latitude should be taken to be the geodetic latitude as defined in the following sections. Also defined are six auxiliary latitudes which are used in special applications. Contents [ hide ] 1 Preliminaries 2 Latitude on the sphere 2.1 The graticule on the sphere 2.2 Named latitudes on the Earth 2.3 Meridian distance on the sphere 3 Latitude on the ellipsoid 3.1 Ellipsoids 3.2 The geometry of the ellipsoid 3.3 Geodetic and geocentric latitudes 3.4 Length of a degree of latit