World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS 84) (WGS84)

The global geodetic reference system used by GPS to express positions and related Earth measurements.

WGS 84 defines an Earth-centred coordinate frame, reference ellipsoid, gravity model and associated conventions. Modern GNSS positions and many nautical charts are compatible with it, but chart notes must be checked because older or local-datum charts can require a position shift.

Datum compatibility does not guarantee chart accuracy or current survey coverage. A WGS 84 position can still be wrong through receiver, antenna, multipath or interference errors, and plotting precision should reflect chart scale and source quality.