PROJ
Guidance last updated: 19 October 2026
PROJ consists of programs and a library for managing cartographic projections.
Usage
After connecting to Stanage (see Establishing a SSH connection), start an interactive session:
salloc
You can load a specific version with the following command:
module load PROJ/9.6.2-GCCcore-14.3.0
module load PROJ/9.1.1-GCCcore-12.2.0
This adds the PROJ commands to your PATH and loads the matching compiler
and library dependencies.
Coordinate transformation examples
Within an interactive session, load PROJ/9.6.2-GCCcore-14.3.0.
The first example is based on the PROJ quick start.
This example converts longitude 55.2 degrees and latitude 12.2 degrees to Mercator coordinates in metres, using the GRS80 ellipsoid and a latitude of true scale of 56.5 degrees:
printf '55.2 12.2\n' | proj -f '%.2f' +proj=merc +lat_ts=56.5 +ellps=GRS80
The output easting and northing are:
3399483.80 752085.60
You can also transform between coordinate reference systems using cs2cs.
This example converts British National Grid (OSGB36, EPSG:27700) eastings and
northings in metres to WGS84 (EPSG:4326), using a worked point from the
Ordnance Survey guide to coordinate systems in Great Britain.
First, download the OSTN15 grid once using projsync:
module load PROJ/9.6.2-GCCcore-14.3.0
projsync --user-writable-directory --file uk_os_OSTN15_NTv2_OSGBtoETRS.tif
PROJ finds the grid automatically in your user data directory. Within your interactive session, run:
printf '651409.903 313177.270\n' | cs2cs --only-best=yes --no-ballpark -f '%.8f' EPSG:27700 EPSG:4326
The first two output values follow EPSG:4326 axis order: latitude, longitude, in decimal degrees:
52.65800615 1.71607528 0.00000000
--only-best=yes makes the command fail if a required transformation grid
is missing.
Documentation
Installed manual pages include proj, cs2cs and geod. For example:
man proj
Installation notes
PROJ was installed using Easybuild, build details can be found in $EBROOTPROJ/easybuild with a given module loaded.