'All cartographers’ trouble began with the abolition of the flat-Earth theory' [1]

For map production and in web services we recommend to use the projections given below. These follow the guidelines endorsed by SCAR EGGI. Spatially enabled web services should always be made available in Geographic Lat/Lon as well.

For more information on the specific properties of the projections below we suggest to read the paper Reference systems of maps and geographic information systems of Antarctica [1].

WKT representations of the Antarctic Polar Stereographic and the SCAR IMW Lambert Conformal Conic projections can be found here.

Geographic Lat / Lon

Latitude / Longitude based on WGS84

EPSG code: 4326

1: 1 000 000 000 and smaller scales

Antarctic Polar Stereographic / WGS84

Projection Parameters and EPSG codes

1: 1 000 000 000 to 1: 100 000 scales

Following the specifications of the International Map of the World (Lambert Conformal Conic or Polar Stereographic)/ WGS84

Projection Parameters and EPSG codes

Scales larger than 1: 100 000

UTM/UPS System / WGS84

Projection Parameters and EPSG codes

The free and open source Cartographic Projections Library Proj.4 includes all of the recommended projections above as of version 4.5.

[1] Sievers, J. and H. Bennat (1989): Reference systems of maps and geographic information systems of Antarctica, Antarctic Science 1 (4), p. 351-362.