Latitude 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. On its own, the term latitude should be taken to be the "geodetic latitude" as defined below. Briefly, geodetic latitude at a point is the angle
Circle of latitude lying along this normal)—no longer lie within this plane. Rather, all points sharing the same latitude—but of varying elevation and longitude—occupy the surface of a truncated cone formed by the rotation of this normal around the Earth's axis of rotation. Circle of latitude A circle of latitude on Earth is an abstract east–west circle connecting all locations around Earth (ignoring elevation) at a given latitude. Circles of latitude are often called parallels because they are parallel to each other; that is, any two circles are always the same distance apart. A location's position along a circle of latitude is given