Coordinate Operations

Coordinate operations are used to convert coordinates from a source CRS to a target CRS.

If source and target CRSs are referred to a different datum, a datum transform has to be applied. Datum transforms are not exact, they are determined empirically. For the same pair of CRS, there can be many datum transforms and versions, each one with its own domain of validity and an associated transform error. Given a CRS pair, GeoServer will automatically pick the most accurate datum transform from the EPSG database, unless a custom operation is declared.

Reprojection Console

The reprojection console (available in Demos) lets you quickly test coordinate operations. Use it to convert a single coordinate or WKT geometry, and to see the operation details GeoServer is using. It is also useful to learn by example when you have to Define a custom Coordinate Operation.

Read more about the Reprojection console.

Add Grid Shift Transform files

GeoServer supports NTv2 and NADCON grid shift transforms. Grid files are not shipped out with GeoServer. They need to be downloaded, usually from your National Mapping Agency website.

Warning

Grid Shift files are only valid in the specific geographic domain for which they where made; trying to transform coordinates outside this domain will result in no trasformation at all. Make sure that the Grid Shift files are valid in the area you want to transform.

  1. Search for the Grid File Name(s) int the tables below, which are extracted from EPSG version 7.9.0. If you need to use a Grid Shift transform not declared in EPSG, you will need to Define a custom Coordinate Operation.

  2. Get the Grid File(s) from your National Mapping Agency (NTv2) or the US National Geodetic Survey (NADCON).

  3. Copy the Grid File(s) in the user_projections directory inside your data directory.

  4. Use the Reprojection Console to test the new transform.

List of available Grid Shift transforms

The list of Grid Shift transforms declared in EPSG version 7.9.0 is:

NTv2

Source CRS

Target CRS

Grid File Name

Source Info

4122

4326

NB7783v2.gsb

OGP

4122

4326

NS778301.gsb

OGP

4122

4326

PE7783V2.gsb

OGP

4122

4617

NB7783v2.gsb

New Brunswick Geographic Information Corporation land and water information standards manual.

4122

4617

NS778301.gsb

Nova Scotia Geomatics Centre - Contact aflemmin@linux1.nsgc.gov.ns.ca or telephone 902-667-6409

4122

4617

PE7783V2.gsb

PEI Department of Transportation & Public Works

4149

4150

CHENyx06a.gsb

Bundesamt für Landestopografie swisstopo; www.swisstopo.ch

4149

4151

CHENyx06_ETRS.gsb

Bundesamt für Landestopografie swisstopo; www.swisstopo.ch

4149

4258

CHENyx06_ETRS.gsb

Bundesamt für Landestopografie swisstopo; www.swisstopo.ch

4149

4326

CHENyx06_ETRS.gsb

IOGP

4171

4275

rgf93_ntf.gsb

ESRI

4202

4283

A66 National (13.09.01).gsb

GDA Technical Manual. http://www.icsm.gov.au/gda

4202

4283

SEAust_21_06_00.gsb

Office of Surveyor General Victoria; http://www.land.vic.gov.au/

4202

4283

nt_0599.gsb

GDA Technical Manual. http://www.icsm.gov.au/gda

4202

4283

tas_1098.gsb

http://www.delm.tas.gov.au/osg/Geodetic_transform.htm

4202

4283

vic_0799.gsb

Office of Surveyor General Victoria; http://www.land.vic.gov.au/

4202

4326

A66 National (13.09.01).gsb

OGP

4203

4283

National 84 (02.07.01).gsb

GDA Technical Manual. http://www.icsm.gov.au/gda

4203

4283

wa_0700.gsb

Department of Land Information, Government of Western Australia; http://www.dola.wa.gov.au/

4203

4326

National 84 (02.07.01).gsb

OGP

4207

4258

DLx_ETRS89_geo.gsb

Instituto Geografico Portugues; http://www.igeo.pt

4225

4326

CA7072_003.gsb

OGP

4225

4674

CA7072_003.gsb

IBGE.

4230

4258

100800401.gsb

Geodesy Unit, Cartographic Institute of Catalonia (ICC); http://www.icc.cat

4230

4258

SPED2ETV2.gsb

Instituto Geográfico Nacional, www.cnig.es

4230

4326

SPED2ETV2.gsb

OGP

4258

4275

rgf93_ntf.gsb

OGP

4267

4269

NTv2_0.gsb

http://www.geod.nrcan.gc.ca/products/html-public/GSDapps/English/NTv2_Fact_Sheet.html

4267

4269

QUE27-83.gsb

Geodetic Service of Quebec. Contact alain.bernard@mrn.gouv.qc.ca

4267

4326

NTv2_0.gsb

OGP

4267

4326

QUE27-98.gsb

OGP

4267

4326

SK27-98.gsb

OGP

4267

4617

NB2783v2.gsb

“Generation of a NAD27-NAD83(CSRS) NTv2-type Grid Shift File for New Brunswick”, Marcelo C. Santos and Carlos A. Garcia, Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, University of New Brunswick, October, 2011 via Service New Brunswick.

4267

4617

QUE27-98.gsb

Geodetic Service of Quebec. Contact alain.bernard@mrn.gouv.qc.ca

4267

4617

SK27-98.gsb

Dir Geodetic Surveys; SaskGeomatics Div.; Saskatchewan Property Management Company.

4269

4326

AB_CSRS.DAC

OGP

4269

4326

NAD83-98.gsb

OGP

4269

4326

SK83-98.gsb

OGP

4269

4617

AB_CSRS.DAC

Geodetic Control Section; Land and Forest Svc; Alberta Environment; http://www3.gov.ab.ca/env/land/dos/

4269

4617

NAD83-98.gsb

Geodetic Service of Quebec. Contact alain.bernard@mrn.gouv.qc.ca

4269

4617

SK83-98.gsb

Dir Geodetic Surveys; SaskGeomatics Div.; Saskatchewan Property Management Company.

4272

4167

nzgd2kgrid0005.gsb

Land Information New Zealand: LINZS25000 Standard for New Zealand Geodetic Datum 2000; 16 November 2007.

4272

4326

nzgd2kgrid0005.gsb

OGP

4274

4258

D73_ETRS89_geo.gsb

Instituto Geografico Portugues; http://www.igeo.pt

4277

4258

OSTN02_NTv2.gsb

Ordnance Survey of Great Britain, http://www.gps.gov.uk

4277

4258

OSTN15_NTv2_OSGBtoETRS.gsb

Ordnance Survey of Great Britain.

4277

4326

OSTN02_NTv2.gsb

OGP

4277

4326

OSTN15_NTv2_OSGBtoETRS.gsb

IOGP

4283

7844

COCOS_C_V1.gsb

GDA2020 Technical Manual (http://www.icsm.gov.au)

4283

7844

GDA94_GDA2020_conformal.gsb

GDA2020 Technical Manual and ICSM Datum Technical Fact Sheet TN1 (http://www.icsm.gov.au).

4283

7844

GDA94_GDA2020_conformal_and_distortion.gsb

GDA2020 Technical Manual and ICSM Datum Technical Fact Sheet TN1 (http://www.icsm.gov.au).

4283

7844

XMAS_C_V1.gsb

GDA2020 Technical Manual (http://www.icsm.gov.au).

4289

4258

rdtrans2008.gsb

Kadaster and Rijkswaterstaat CIV, working together under the name RDNAP.

4300

4258

tm75_etrs89.gsb

ESRI Ireland.

4300

4326

tm75_etrs89.gsb

OGP

4301

4612

tky2jgd.gsb

ESRI

4301

6668

tky2jgd.gsb

OGP

4312

4258

AT_GIS_GRID.gsb

Federal Office of Metrology and Surveying (BEV); http://www.bev.gv.at

4313

4258

bd72lb72_etrs89lb08.gsb

IGN Brussels www.ngi.be

4314

4258

BETA2007.gsb

BKG via EuroGeographics http://crs.bkg.bund.de/crs-eu/

4314

4326

BETA2007.gsb

OGP

4326

4275

rgf93_ntf.gsb

OGP

4608

4269

May76v20.gsb

Geodetic Survey of Canada http://www.geod.nrcan.gc.ca/

4608

4326

May76v20.gsb

OGP

4609

4269

CGQ77-83.gsb

Geodetic Service of Quebec. Contact alain.bernard@mrn.gouv.qc.ca

4609

4326

CGQ77-98.gsb

OGP

4609

4617

CGQ77-98.gsb

Geodetic Service of Quebec. Contact alain.bernard@mrn.gouv.qc.ca

4612

6668

touhokutaiheiyouoki2011.gsb

ESRI

4618

4326

SAD69_003.gsb

OGP

4618

4674

SAD69_003.gsb

IBGE.

4745

4258

NTv2_SN.gsb

Saxony State Spatial Data and Land Survey Corporation (GeoSN).

4745

4326

BETA2007.gsb

OGP

4746

4326

BETA2007.gsb

OGP

4749

4644

RGNC1991_NEA74Noumea.gsb

ESRI

4749

4662

RGNC1991_IGN72GrandeTerre.gsb

ESRI

5524

4326

CA61_003.gsb

OGP

5524

4674

CA61_003.gsb

IBGE.

5527

4326

SAD96_003.gsb

OGP

5527

4674

SAD96_003.gsb

IBGE.

NADCON

Source CRS

Target CRS

Version

Latitude shift file

Longitude shift file

4135

4269

NGS-Usa HI

hawaii.las

hawaii.los

4136

4269

NGS-Usa AK StL

stlrnc.las

stlrnc.los

4137

4269

NGS-Usa AK StP

stpaul.las

stpaul.los

4138

4269

NGS-Usa AK StG

stgeorge.las

stgeorge.los

4139

4269

NGS-PRVI

prvi.las

prvi.los

4169

4152

NGS-Asm E

eshpgn.las

eshpgn.los

4169

4152

NGS-Asm W

wshpgn.las

wshpgn.los

4267

4269

NGS-Usa AK

alaska.las

alaska.los

4267

4269

NGS-Usa Conus

conus.las

conus.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa AL

alhpgn.las

alhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa AR

arhpgn.las

arhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa AZ

azhpgn.las

azhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa CA n

cnhpgn.las

cnhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa CO

cohpgn.las

cohpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa CA s

cshpgn.las

cshpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa ID MT e

emhpgn.las

emhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa TX e

ethpgn.las

ethpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa FL

flhpgn.las

flhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa GA

gahpgn.las

gahpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa HI

hihpgn.las

hihpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa IA

iahpgn.las

iahpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa IL

ilhpgn.las

ilhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa IN

inhpgn.las

inhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa KS

kshpgn.las

kshpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa KY

kyhpgn.las

kyhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa LA

lahpgn.las

lahpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa DE MD

mdhpgn.las

mdhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa ME

mehpgn.las

mehpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa MI

mihpgn.las

mihpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa MN

mnhpgn.las

mnhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa MO

mohpgn.las

mohpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa MS

mshpgn.las

mshpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa NE

nbhpgn.las

nbhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa NC

nchpgn.las

nchpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa ND

ndhpgn.las

ndhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa NewEng

nehpgn.las

nehpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa NJ

njhpgn.las

njhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa NM

nmhpgn.las

nmhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa NV

nvhpgn.las

nvhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa NY

nyhpgn.las

nyhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa OH

ohhpgn.las

ohhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa OK

okhpgn.las

okhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa PA

pahpgn.las

pahpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-PRVI

pvhpgn.las

pvhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa SC

schpgn.las

schpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa SD

sdhpgn.las

sdhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa TN

tnhpgn.las

tnhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa UT

uthpgn.las

uthpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa VA

vahpgn.las

vahpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa WI

wihpgn.las

wihpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa ID MT w

wmhpgn.las

wmhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa OR WA

wohpgn.las

wohpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa TX w

wthpgn.las

wthpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa WV

wvhpgn.las

wvhpgn.los

4269

4152

NGS-Usa WY

wyhpgn.las

wyhpgn.los

4675

4152

NGS-Gum

guhpgn.las

guhpgn.los

8351

4156

UGKK-Svk

Slovakia_JTSK03_to_JTSK.LAS.las

Slovakia_JTSK03_to_JTSK.LAS.los

8351

4156

UGKK-Svk

Slovakia_JTSK03_to_JTSK.LOS.las

Slovakia_JTSK03_to_JTSK.LOS.los

Define a custom Coordinate Operation

Custom Coordinate Operations are defined in epsg_operations.properties file. This file has to be placed into the user_projections directory, inside your data directory (create it if it doesn’t exist).

Each line in epsg_operations.properties will describe a coordinate operation consisting of a source CRS, a target CRS, and a math transform with its parameter values. Use the following syntax:

<source crs code>,<target crs code>=<WKT math transform>

Math transform is described in Well-Known Text syntax. Parameter names and value ranges are described in the EPSG Geodetic Parameter Registry.

Note

Use the Reprojection Console to learn from example and to test your custom definitions.

Examples

Custom NTv2 file:

4230,4258=PARAM_MT["NTv2", \
  PARAMETER["Latitude and longitude difference file", "100800401.gsb"]]

Geocentric transformation, preceded by an ellipsoid to geocentric conversion, and back geocentric to ellipsoid. The results is a concatenation of three math transforms:

4230,4258=CONCAT_MT[ \
  PARAM_MT["Ellipsoid_To_Geocentric", \
    PARAMETER["dim", 2], \
    PARAMETER["semi_major", 6378388.0], \
    PARAMETER["semi_minor", 6356911.9461279465]], \
  PARAM_MT["Position Vector transformation (geog2D domain)", \
    PARAMETER["dx", -116.641], \
    PARAMETER["dy", -56.931], \
    PARAMETER["dz", -110.559], \
    PARAMETER["ex", 0.8925078166311858], \
    PARAMETER["ey", 0.9207660950870382], \
    PARAMETER["ez", -0.9166407989620964], \
    PARAMETER["ppm", -3.5200000000346066]], \
  PARAM_MT["Geocentric_To_Ellipsoid", \
    PARAMETER["dim", 2], \
    PARAMETER["semi_major", 6378137.0], \
    PARAMETER["semi_minor", 6356752.314140356]]]

You can make use of existing grid shift files such as this explicit transformation from NAD27 to WGS84 made up of a NADCON transform from NAD27 to NAD83 followed by a Molodenski transform converting from the GRS80 Ellipsoid (used by NAD83) to the WGS84 Ellipsoid:

4267,4326=CONCAT_MT[ \
  PARAM_MT["NADCON", \
    PARAMETER["Latitude difference file", "conus.las"], \
    PARAMETER["Longitude difference file", "conus.los"]], \
  PARAM_MT["Molodenski", \
    PARAMETER["dim", 2], \
    PARAMETER["dx", 0.0], \
    PARAMETER["dy", 0.0], \
    PARAMETER["dz", 0.0], \
    PARAMETER["src_semi_major", 6378137.0], \
    PARAMETER["src_semi_minor", 6356752.314140356], \
    PARAMETER["tgt_semi_major", 6378137.0], \
    PARAMETER["tgt_semi_minor", 6356752.314245179]]]

Affine 2D transform operating directly in projected coordinates:

23031,25831=PARAM_MT["Affine", \
  PARAMETER["num_row", 3], \
  PARAMETER["num_col", 3], \
  PARAMETER["elt_0_0", 1.0000015503712145], \
  PARAMETER["elt_0_1", 0.00000758753979846734], \
  PARAMETER["elt_0_2", -129.549], \
  PARAMETER["elt_1_0", -0.00000758753979846734], \
  PARAMETER["elt_1_1", 1.0000015503712145], \
  PARAMETER["elt_1_2", -208.185]]

Each operation can be described in a single line, or can be split in several lines for readability, adding a backslash “\” at the end of each line, as in the former examples.