proj for Debian
---------------
This is unusual, but let me provide some QuickStart on using this stuff.
proj
~~~~
I use `proj' all the time to draw maps in various projections using
graphing tools that cannot themselves handle fancy map projections
by piping all my data (coastline, etc) through proj.
For example, drawing Eastern Canada in Lambert Conformal Conic, I'd use:
proj +proj=lcc +ellps=clrk66 +lat_o=48.5 +lon_0="-62.5" -m 1:111120 -f '%.5f' -t9
invproj +proj=lcc +ellps=clrk66 +lat_o=48.5 +lon_0="-62.5" -m 1:111120 -f '%.5f'
-r : reverses the order of the expected input from longitude-latitude or
x-y to latitude-longitude or y-x.
-f : Format is a printf format string to control the form of the output
values.
-m : scale
-t : specifies a character employed as the first character to denote a
control line to be passed through without processing. This option
applicable to ascii input only. (# is the default value).
I use this to skip over the missing data parameter.
I pass Lat&Lon data segment to proj like so:
-65 49
-65.1 49.1
99 99
-66 49
-66 49.1
using 99 in this example to separate segments (missing data). After piping
the above through proj, I get :
$ proj +proj=lcc +lat_o=48.5 +lon_0="-62.5" -m 1:111120 +ellps=clrk66 -f '%.5f' l.tmp
-1.66314 51.62596
-1.72676 51.72892
* *
-2.32812 51.64792
-2.32423 51.74899
So, I might tell my graph-making package to use 99 as missing data
parameter, and tell proj "-t9" (the first character of my missing value
parameter) and get:
$ proj +proj=lcc +lat_o=48.5 +lon_0="-62.5" -m 1:111120 -t9 ellps=clrk66 -f '%.5f' l.tmp
-1.66314 51.62596
-1.72676 51.72892
99 99
-2.32812 51.64792
-2.32423 51.74899
geod
~~~~
geod is useful for calculating a latitude & longitude given another
position, along with distance and bearing. The man page has a good
example. It's also useful to calculate the distance and bearing between two
locations. Let's verify that one nautical mile is (approx) equal to one
minute in latitude (between 42 degN and 42 degN 1 minute):
$ geod -I +ellps=clrk66 +units=kmi <<EOF
42d00 72d00 42d01 72d00
42 72 42.016666 72
EOF
It outputs two lines, showing that it's pretty liberal about input data
format:
0d 180d 1.000
0d 180d 1.000
So 1 nm at 180deg bearing.
nad2nad and cs2cs:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Debian proj package includes built-in datum conversion.
nad2nad is a filter to convert data between North America Datum 1927
(NAD27) and North American Datum 1983. nad2nad can optionally process both
State Plane Coordinate System (SPCS) and Universal Transverse Mercator
(UTM) grid data as well as geographic data for both input and output.
cs2cs is more general. It performs transformation between the source and
destination cartographic coordinate system on a set of input points. The
coordinate system transformation can include translation between projected
and geographic coordinates as well as the application of datum shifts.
Test nad2nad with the following example:
$ nad2nad -i 83 -o 27 -r conus << EOF
71d14'58.27"W 44d20'15.227"N
EOF
It should produce: 71d15'W 44d20'15"N
While the nad2nad program can be used in some cases, the cs2cs is now the
preferred mechanism. The following example demonstrates using the default
shift parameters for NAD27 to NAD83:
$ cs2cs +proj=latlong +datum=NAD27 +to +proj=latlong +datum=NAD83
-117 30
producing:
117d0'2.901"W 30d0'0.407"N 0.00
See https://proj.org/faq.html
Peter S Galbraith <psg@debian.org>
Francesco P Lovergine <frankie@debian.org>
Updated May 2009
Generated by dwww version 1.14 on Thu Jan 23 03:27:57 CET 2025.