Geographic latitude is the angle between the equatorial plane and a line that is perpendicular to the reference ellipsoid representing Earth. Maps use latitude and longitude coordinates to describe the location of a point on the Earth's surface.
There are many types of latitudes including geographic, reduced, authalic, rectifying, conformal, geocentric and astronomical. They differ in the way the latitude is calculated. Geographic latitude is the common method used. Geocentric latitude is the angle between the equatorial plane and a line from the center of the Earth. Astronomical latitude is the angle between the equatorial plane and the perpendicular line to the geoid (Earth's spheroid represented at average sea level). Rectifying latitude is the surface distance from the equator, scaled so the pole is 90 degrees. Authalic latitude gives a transform to a sphere which preserves area. Conformal latitude gives a transform to a sphere which preserves the angle. Reduced latitude on a spheroid forms circles with radii corresponding to the radii of latitudes on a sphere.
Latitude is measured in degrees. Each degree is divided into 60 minutes. Each minute is divided into 60 seconds. Twenty-three degrees, 26 minutes, 21 seconds North (23° 26′ 21″ N) represents the Tropic of Cancer.
The climate of an area is dependent on its latitude. The closer a point is to the equator, the hotter the average weather is.
Latitude gives one half of a map coordinate. It gives the position north or south of equator. The second half of a map coordinate is longitude. It gives the position east or west of the prime meridian.
