Geographic Coordinates (DMS / MGRS)

Detects geographic coordinates written in degrees-minutes-seconds (DMS) form with a hemisphere letter (e.g. 40 deg 26' 46" N) and in Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) form (e.g. 4QFJ 12345 67890). The registry already covers decimal-degree coordinates; this adds the DMS and MGRS notations commonly found in mapping exports, surveying records, defence/geospatial documents and EXIF-derived location data.

Type: regex
Engine: universal
Confidence: medium
Confidence justification: Medium confidence: the DMS branch is well constrained by the degree/minute/second marks and a hemisphere letter, but the MGRS branch can collide with other letter-then-digit identifiers. Corroborative location keywords within 300 characters improve precision for bulk scanning.
Jurisdictions: global
Regulations: GDPR
Frameworks: ISO 27001, ISO 27701
Data categories: location, pii
Scope: wide
Platform compatibility: Purview: Compatible, GCP DLP: Unsupported, Macie: Unsupported, Zscaler: Compatible, Palo Alto: Unsupported, Netskope: Unsupported

Pattern

\b\d{1,3}\s?[°º]\s?\d{1,2}\s?['′]\s?\d{1,2}(?:\.\d+)?\s?["″]?\s?[NSEWnsew]\b|(?<![A-Za-z0-9])\d{1,2}[C-HJ-NP-Xc-hj-np-x][A-HJ-NP-Za-hj-np-z][A-HJ-NP-Va-hj-np-v]\s?\d{2,5}\s?\d{2,5}(?![A-Za-z0-9])

Corroborative evidence keywords

coordinates, latitude, longitude, GPS, location, geolocation, grid reference, MGRS

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

40° 26' 46" N — DMS latitude with degree/minute/second marks and N hemisphere
151° 12′ 33.4″ E — DMS with prime/double-prime marks and decimal seconds, E hemisphere
4QFJ 12345 67890 — MGRS reference, grid zone 4Q, square FJ, easting/northing

Should not match

40.4461, -79.9822 — Decimal-degree coordinates, covered by the decimal-degrees pattern not this one
40 26 46 — Three numbers with no degree marks or hemisphere - not DMS
the survey crew recorded the grid reference in the field notebook — Prose mention of a grid reference with no actual coordinate

Known false positives

MGRS-like tokens (zone digits + two letters + digit runs) appearing in part numbers or codes. Mitigation: Require corroborative location keywords (coordinates, latitude, grid reference, MGRS) within 300 characters.
Temperature or angle values written with a degree mark but no minutes/seconds or hemisphere. Mitigation: The DMS branch requires minutes, seconds and a hemisphere letter, excluding bare degree values.