'Returns the hemisphere sign for a given coordinate type.
@param coordinateType: The coordinate type to find the hemisphere for.
@type coordinateType: L{Angles.LATITUDE}, L{Angles.LONGITUDE} or
L{Angles.VARIATION}.
@return: The sign of that hemisphere (-1 or 1).
@rtype: C{int}'

def _getHemisphereSign(self, coordinateType):

    if (coordinateType is Angles.LATITUDE):
        hemisphereKey = 'latitudeHemisphere'
    elif (coordinateType is Angles.LONGITUDE):
        hemisphereKey = 'longitudeHemisphere'
    elif (coordinateType is Angles.VARIATION):
        hemisphereKey = 'magneticVariationDirection'
    else:
        raise ValueError(('unknown    coordinate    type    %s' % (coordinateType,)))
    hemisphere = getattr(self.currentSentence, hemisphereKey).upper()
    if (hemisphere in 'NE'):
        return 1
    elif (hemisphere in 'SW'):
        return (-1)
    else:
        raise ValueError(('bad    hemisphere/direction:    %s' % (hemisphere,)))
