Writing order of geospacial coordinates

Question

Is there a defined order in which to write geospacial coordinates? When looking at GPX files generated by my GPS, latitude is named first but when looking at a KML file generated by google earth longitude is first. I tend to think of longitude as the "x-axis," since it goes from north to south, and it would be nice to know if there is in deed a norm that would state that longitude is named first.

Answer 1

Both orders are in common use. When writing geographic coordinates, I recommend appending a hemisphere designator so that the meaning is clear. Thus 33.3N 44.4E is some place in Baghdad. (By the way you can paste a string like this into Google Maps or Google Earth and it will be understood.)