The Swiss coordinate system (or Swiss grid) is a geographic coordinate system used in Switzerland for maps and surveying by the Swiss Federal Office of Topography (Swisstopo).

The map projection used is on a 1841 Bessel ellipsoid.

The geodetic datum CH1903 uses as fundamental point the old observatory of Berne (), the current location of the Institut für exakte Wissenschaften of the University of Berne. The coordinates of this point are 600'000 m E / 200'000 m N, thus coordinates for locations in Switzerland are always positive and the value for the east coordinate is higher.

Devised for the national land survey of 1995 (LV 95 for Landesvermessung 1995), the CH1903+ datum is based on WGS84. The coordinates of its new reference point, the Zimmerwald observatory, should maintain the CH1903 coordinates as far as possible. The easting and northing is increased by 2 mio/1 mio.

External links

• Swisstopo: Die Schweizerische Kartenprojektion, La projection catographique Suisse (only German/French)
• Map Projections of Switzerland
• Converters: [1], [2], [3]
• Online maps with search by Swiss coordinates:
  • http://www.sanday.ch Endoxon
  • http://www.geoportal.ch (GIS for cantons SG, AR)
  • http://www.gis.zh.ch/gb4/bluevari/gb.asp (GIS for canton ZH)
• Zimmerwald Observatory