We are heavy users of the ECEF coordinate system and wanted to have a easy to use tool to convert back and forth between the more familiar geodetic coordinate system (latitude, longitude, altitude).
We'd like to enable others use of ECEF
What is ECEF?
If you haven't already checked out the Wikipedia page, ECEF stands for "Earth Centered, Earth Fixed". ECEF is a global coordinate system that represents 3 dimensional space where the origin is the earth's center and the axis rotate with the earth.
Why is ECEF great?
The primary reason ECEF is useful is that it unambiguously defines a coordinate on or above the earth. Often when working with systems that use geodetic coordinates (Latitude, Longitude, Altitude), confusion can arise over what to which the "altitude" term references. GPS coordinates often output relative to the WGS-84 ellipsoid, an ideal global model of the Earth. Often surveyors use "mean sea level" as a reference, which can vary from the ellipsoid by 100s of meters. Finally, many in the aviation community primarily use AGL (above ground level) height, which requires knowledge of the terrain height. If people are careless in the specification of their altitude, systems have trouble interfacing.
ECEF solves all of this, but at the expense of being cumbersome for humans to use. Our hope is that ConvertECEF can help fill that human need. While you've probably already tried our simple web form, our site's real power comes from our web API. Try it out here!