# Parameters¶

Date: 01/28/2016

This document attempts to describe a variety of the PROJ.4 parameters which can be applied to all, or many coordinate system definitions. This document does not attempt to describe the parameters particular to particular projection types. Some of these can be found in the GeoTIFF Projections Transform List. The definitive documentation for most parameters is Gerald’s original documentation available from the main PROJ.4 page.

## Parameter list¶

Common parameters:

(this PROJ.4 distribution including cs2cs and datum support)

+a         Semimajor radius of the ellipsoid axis
+alpha     ? Used with Oblique Mercator and possibly a few others
+axis      Axis orientation (new in 4.8.0)
+b         Semiminor radius of the ellipsoid axis
+datum     Datum name (see proj -ld)
+ellps     Ellipsoid name (see proj -le)
+k         Scaling factor (old name)
+k_0       Scaling factor (new name)
+lat_0     Latitude of origin
+lat_1     Latitude of first standard parallel
+lat_2     Latitude of second standard parallel
+lat_ts    Latitude of true scale
+lon_0     Central meridian
+lonc      ? Longitude used with Oblique Mercator and possibly a few others
+lon_wrap  Center longitude to use for wrapping (see below)
+nadgrids  Filename of NTv2 grid file to use for datum transforms (see below)
+no_defs   Don't use the /usr/share/proj/proj_def.dat defaults file
+over      Allow longitude output outside -180 to 180 range, disables wrapping (see below)
+pm        Alternate prime meridian (typically a city name, see below)
+proj      Projection name (see proj -l)
+south     Denotes southern hemisphere UTM zone
+to_meter  Multiplier to convert map units to 1.0m
+towgs84   3 or 7 term datum transform parameters (see below)
+units     meters, US survey feet, etc.
+vto_meter vertical conversion to meters.
+vunits    vertical units.
+x_0       False easting
+y_0       False northing
+zone      UTM zone


Extended list provided by Gerald Evenden “grepped out of the RCS directory”.

(libproj4 by G.E.; no datum support)

+a         Semimajor radius of the ellipsoid axis
+alpha     ? Used with Oblique Mercator and possibly a few others
+azi
+b         Semiminor radius of the ellipsoid axis
+belgium
+beta
+czech
+e         Eccentricity of the ellipsoid = sqrt(1 - b^2/a^2) = sqrt( f*(2-f) )
+ellps     Ellipsoid name (see proj -le)
+es        Eccentricity of the ellipsoid squared
+f         Flattening of the ellipsoid = 1-sqrt(1-e^2) (often presented as an inverse, e.g. 1/298)
+geoc
+guam
+h
+k         Scaling factor (old name)
+K
+k_0       Scaling factor (new name)
+lat_0     Latitude of origin
+lat_1     Latitude of first standard parallel
+lat_2     Latitude of second standard parallel
+lat_b
+lat_t
+lat_ts    Latitude of true scale
+lon_0     Central meridian
+lon_1
+lon_2
+lonc      ? Longitude used with Oblique Mercator and possibly a few others
+lsat
+m
+M
+n
+no_cut
+no_off    No offset. If present, do not offset origin to center of projection. Only used in Oblique Mercator projection.
+no_uoff   Backwards compatible version of +no_off.
+no_rot
+ns
+o_alpha
+o_lat_1
+o_lat_2
+o_lat_c
+o_lat_p
+o_lon_1
+o_lon_2
+o_lon_c
+o_lon_p
+o_proj
+over
+p
+path
+proj      Projection name (see proj -l)
+q
+R
+R_a
+R_A       Compute radius such that the area of the sphere is the same as the area of the ellipsoid
+rf        Reciprocal of the ellipsoid flattening term (e.g. 298)
+R_g
+R_h
+R_lat_a
+R_lat_g
+rot
+R_V
+s
+south     Denotes southern hemisphere UTM zone
+sym
+t
+theta
+tilt
+to_meter  Multiplier to convert map units to 1.0m
+units     meters, US survey feet, etc.
+vopt
+W
+westo
+x_0       False easting
+y_0       False northing
+zone      UTM zone


See GE’s libproj4 manual for further details (copy in wayback machine).

Further details for projection at http://www.remotesensing.org/geotiff/proj_list/

## Units¶

Horizontal units can be specified using the +units= keyword with a symbolic name for a unit (ie. us-ft). Alternatively the translation to meters can be specified with the +to_meter keyword (ie. 0.304800609601219 for US feet). The -lu argument to cs2cs or proj can be used to list symbolic unit names. The default unit for projected coordinates is the meter. A few special projections deviate from this behaviour, most notably the latlong pseudo-projection that returns degrees.

## Vertical Units¶

Vertical (Z) units can be specified using the +vunits= keyword with a symbolic name for a unit (ie. us-ft). Alternatively the translation to meters can be specified with the +vto_meter keyword (ie. 0.304800609601219 for US feet). The -lu argument to cs2cs or proj can be used to list symbolic unit names. If no vertical units are specified, the vertical units will default to be the same as the horizontal coordinates.

Note that vertical unit transformations are only supported in pj_transform() and programs built on that such as cs2cs. The low level projections functions pj_fwd() and pj_inv() and programs using them directly such as proj do not handle vertical units at all.

## False Easting/Northing¶

Virtually all coordinate systems allow for the presence of a false easting (+x_0) and northing (+y_0). Note that these values are always expressed in meters even if the coordinate system is some other units. Some coordinate systems (such as UTM) have implicit false easting and northing values.

## lon_wrap, over - Longitude Wrapping¶

By default PROJ.4 wraps output longitudes in the range -180 to 180. The +over switch can be used to disable the default wrapping which is done at a low level - in pj_inv(). This is particularly useful with projections like eqc where it would desirable for X values past -20000000 (roughly) to continue past -180 instead of wrapping to +180.

The +lon_wrap option can be used to provide an alternative means of doing longitude wrapping within pj_transform(). The argument to this option is a center longitude. So +lon_wrap=180 means wrap longitudes in the range 0 to 360. Note that +over does not disable +lon_wrap.

## pm - Prime Meridian¶

A prime meridian may be declared indicating the offset between the prime meridian of the declared coordinate system and that of greenwich. A prime meridian is clared using the “pm” parameter, and may be assigned a symbolic name, or the longitude of the alternative prime meridian relative to greenwich.

Currently prime meridian declarations are only utilized by the pj_transform() API call, not the pj_inv() and pj_fwd() calls. Consequently the user utility cs2cs does honour prime meridians but the proj user utility ignores them.

The following predeclared prime meridian names are supported. These can be listed using the cs2cs argument -lm.

greenwich 0dE
lisbon 9d07'54.862"W
paris 2d20'14.025"E
bogota 74d04'51.3"E
rome 12d27'8.4"E
bern 7d26'22.5"E
jakarta 106d48'27.79"E
ferro 17d40'W
brussels 4d22'4.71"E
stockholm 18d3'29.8"E
athens 23d42'58.815"E
oslo 10d43'22.5"E


Example of use. The location long=0, lat=0 in the greenwich based lat/long coordinates is translated to lat/long coordinates with Madrid as the prime meridian.

cs2cs +proj=latlong +datum=WGS84 +to +proj=latlong +datum=WGS84 +pm=madrid
0 0                           <i>(input)</i>
3d41'16.48"E    0dN 0.000     <i>(output)</i>


## towgs84 - Datum transformation to WGS84¶

Datum shifts can be approximated by 3 parameter spatial translations (in geocentric space), or 7 parameter shifts (translation + rotation + scaling). The parameters to describe this can be described using the towgs84 parameter.

In the three parameter case, the three arguments are the translations to the geocentric location in meters.

For instance, the following demonstrates converting from the Greek GGRS87 datum to WGS84.

cs2cs +proj=latlong +ellps=GRS80 +towgs84=-199.87,74.79,246.62
+to +proj=latlong +datum=WGS84
20 35
20d0'5.467"E    35d0'9.575"N 8.570


The EPSG database provides this example for transforming from WGS72 to WGS84 using an approximated 7 parameter transformation.

cs2cs +proj=latlong +ellps=WGS72 +towgs84=0,0,4.5,0,0,0.554,0.219 \
+to +proj=latlong +datum=WGS84
4 55
4d0'0.554"E     55d0'0.09"N 3.223


The seven parameter case uses delta_x, delta_y, delta_z, Rx - rotation X, Ry - rotation Y, Rz - rotation Z, M_BF - Scaling. The three translation parameters are in meters as in the three parameter case. The rotational parameters are in seconds of arc. The scaling is apparently the scale change in parts per million.

A more complete discussion of the 3 and 7 parameter transformations can be found in the EPSG database (trf_method’s 9603 and 9606). Within PROJ.4 the following calculations are used to apply the towgs84 transformation (going to WGS84). The x, y and z coordinates are in geocentric coordinates.

Three parameter transformation (simple offsets):

x[io] = x[io] + defn->datum_params[0];
y[io] = y[io] + defn->datum_params[1];
z[io] = z[io] + defn->datum_params[2];


Seven parameter transformation (translation, rotation and scaling):

#define Dx_BF (defn->datum_params[0])
#define Dy_BF (defn->datum_params[1])
#define Dz_BF (defn->datum_params[2])
#define Rx_BF (defn->datum_params[3])
#define Ry_BF (defn->datum_params[4])
#define Rz_BF (defn->datum_params[5])
#define M_BF  (defn->datum_params[6])

x_out = M_BF*(       x[io] - Rz_BF*y[io] + Ry_BF*z[io]) + Dx_BF;
y_out = M_BF*( Rz_BF*x[io] +       y[io] - Rx_BF*z[io]) + Dy_BF;
z_out = M_BF*(-Ry_BF*x[io] + Rx_BF*y[io] +       z[io]) + Dz_BF;


Note that EPSG method 9607 (coordinate frame rotation) coefficients can be converted to EPSG method 9606 (position vector 7-parameter) supported by PROJ.4 by reversing the sign of the rotation vectors. The methods are otherwise the same.

In many places (notably North America and Austrialia) national geodetic organizations provide grid shift files for converting between different datums, such as NAD27 to NAD83. These grid shift files include a shift to be applied at each grid location. Actually grid shifts are normally computed based on an interpolation between the containing four grid points.

PROJ.4 currently supports use of grid shift files for shifting between datums and WGS84 under some circumstances. The grid shift table formats are ctable (the binary format produced by the PROJ.4 nad2bin program), NTv1 (the old Canadian format), and NTv2 (.gsb - the new Canadian and Australian format).

Use of grid shifts is specified using the nadgrids keyword in a coordinate system definition. For example:

% cs2cs +proj=latlong +ellps=clrk66 +nadgrids=ntv1_can.dat \
+to +proj=latlong +ellps=GRS80 +datum=NAD83 << EOF
-111 50
EOF
111d0'2.952"W   50d0'0.111"N 0.000


In this case the /usr/local/share/proj/ntv1_can.dat grid shift file was loaded, and used to get a grid shift value for the selected point.

It is possible to list multiple grid shift files, in which case each will be tried in turn till one is found that contains the point being transformed.

cs2cs +proj=latlong +ellps=clrk66 \
+to +proj=latlong +ellps=GRS80 +datum=NAD83 << EOF
-111 44
EOF
111d0'2.788"W   43d59'59.725"N 0.000


### Skipping Missing Grids¶

The special prefix @ may be prefixed to a grid to make it optional. If it not found, the search will continue to the next grid. Normally any grid not found will cause an error. For instance, the following would use the ntv2_0.gsb file if available (see [[NonFreeGrids]]), otherwise it would fallback to using the ntv1_can.dat file.

cs2cs +proj=latlong +ellps=clrk66 +nadgrids=@ntv2_0.gsb,ntv1_can.dat \
+to +proj=latlong +ellps=GRS80 +datum=NAD83 << EOF
-111 50
EOF
111d0'3.006"W   50d0'0.103"N 0.000


### The null Grid¶

A special null grid shift file is shift with releases after 4.4.6 (not inclusive). This file provides a zero shift for the whole world. It may be listed at the end of a nadgrids file list if you want a zero shift to be applied to points outside the valid region of all the other grids. Normally if no grid is found that contains the point to be transformed an error will occur.

cs2cs +proj=latlong +ellps=clrk66 +nadgrids=conus,null \
+to +proj=latlong +ellps=GRS80 +datum=NAD83 << EOF
-111 45
EOF
111d0'3.006"W   50d0'0.103"N 0.000

+to +proj=latlong +ellps=GRS80 +datum=NAD83 << EOF
-111 44
-111 55
EOF
111d0'2.788"W   43d59'59.725"N 0.000
111dW   55dN 0.000


The source distribution of PROJ.4 contains only the ntv1_can.dat file. To get the set of US grid shift files it is necessary to download an additional distribution of files from the PROJ.4 site, such as ftp://ftp.remotesensing.org/pub/proj/proj-nad27-1.1.tar.gz. Overlay it on the PROJ.4 source distribution, and re-configure, compile and install. The distributed ASCII .lla files are converted into binary (platform specific) files that are installed. On windows using the nmake /f makefile.vc nadshift command in the projsrc directory to build and install these files.

It appears we can’t redistribute the Canadian NTv2 grid shift file freely, though it is better than the NTv1 file. However, end users can download it for free from the NRCan web site. After downloading it, just dump it in the data directory with the other installed data files (usually /usr/local/share/proj). See [[NonFreeGrids]] for details.

### Caveats¶

• Where grids overlap (such as conus and ntv1_can.dat for instance) the first found for a point will be used regardless of whether it is appropriate or not. So, for instance, +nadgrids=ntv1_can.dat,conus would result in the Canadian data being used for some areas in the northern United States even though the conus data is the approved data to use for the area. Careful selection of files and file order is necessary. In some cases border spanning datasets may need to be pre-segmented into Canadian and American points so they can be properly grid shifted
• There are additional grids for shifting between NAD83 and various HPGN versions of the NAD83 datum. Use of these haven’t been tried recently so you may encounter problems. The FL.lla, WO.lla, MD.lla, TN.lla and WI.lla are examples of high precision grid shifts. Take care!
• Additional detail on the grid shift being applied can be found by setting the PROJ_DEBUG environment variable to a value. This will result in output to stderr on what grid is used to shift points, the bounds of the various grids loaded and so forth
• PROJ.4 always assumes that grids contain a shift to NAD83 (essentially WGS84). Other types of grids might or might not be usable

## Axis orientation¶

Starting in PROJ 4.8.0, the +axis argument can be used to control the axis orientation of the coordinate system. The default orientation is “easting, northing, up” but directions can be flipped, or axes flipped using combinations of the axes in the +axis switch. The values are:

• “e” - Easting
• “w” - Westing
• “n” - Northing
• “s” - Southing
• “u” - Up
• “d” - Down

They can be combined in +axis in forms like:

• +axis=enu - the default easting, northing, elevation.
• +axis=neu - northing, easting, up - useful for “lat/long” geographic coordinates, or south orientated transverse mercator.
• +axis=wnu - westing, northing, up - some planetary coordinate systems have “west positive” coordinate systems

Note that the +axis argument only applies to coordinate transformations done through pj_transform() (so it works with cs2cs, but not with the proj commandline program).