R help - Oct 2011 - problem with project command in rgdal

Hi

I'm trying to analyse some data and need to set the geographic coordinate
system before I can do the analysis. I've been trying to use the project
command in rgdal but keep getting an error message saying:


Error in project(locationsMatrix, PROJECTION.OUT) : 
  latitude or longitude exceeded limits

( PROJECTION.OUT <- "+proj=aea +lat_1=-18 +lat_2=-36 +lat_0=0 +lon_0=132
+x_0=0 +y_0=0 +ellps=GRS80 +towgs84=0,0,0,0,0,0,0 +units=m +no_defs")

I know that I'm using the right proj4 format (got it from the espy file in
the Proj4 data directory) and I know that the datum is correct as I often
use it in GIS (GDA94; Australia Albers). 

Before using the project command I have a series of commands to make my raw
input (a csv file) into a matrix with only the two columns of co-ordinates.
There doesn't seem to be any problem in the matrix either. 
I'm really confused as to what the problem could be. I've used this
command
successfully for other datasets.

Thanks in advance of any help/suggestions

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Comments below.

On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 3:11 PM, kalee <kathryn.lee1 at
students.mq.edu.au> wrote:
> Hi
>
> I'm trying to analyse some data and need to set the geographic
coordinate
> system before I can do the analysis. I've been trying to use the
project
> command in rgdal but keep getting an error message saying:
>
>
> Error in project(locationsMatrix, PROJECTION.OUT) :
> ?latitude or longitude exceeded limits
>
The message is pretty explicit so, I would check the coordinates
themselves, try range(locationsMatrix[,1]) and
range(locationsMatrix[,2]) and see that they are sensible for
longitude and latitude respectively - project() expects a 2 column
matrix with lon, lat in that order.
> ( PROJECTION.OUT <- "+proj=aea +lat_1=-18 +lat_2=-36 +lat_0=0
+lon_0=132
> +x_0=0 +y_0=0 +ellps=GRS80 +towgs84=0,0,0,0,0,0,0 +units=m +no_defs")
>
> I know that I'm using the right proj4 format (got it from the espy file
in
> the Proj4 data directory) and I know that the datum is correct as I often
> use it in GIS (GDA94; Australia Albers).
>
You must mean the "epsg" file - it stands for "European Petroleum
Survey Group" http://www.epsg.org/.

> Before using the project command I have a series of commands to make my raw
> input (a csv file) into a matrix with only the two columns of co-ordinates.
> There doesn't seem to be any problem in the matrix either.
> I'm really confused as to what the problem could be. I've used this
command
> successfully for other datasets.
>
Please share the code in full, since it might hide obvious problems
that others could see. Providing a summary of the locationsMatrix
columns, for at least their range (min/max) will probably suffice.

They may simply not be in the range you expect, or they may be in the
wrong order for longitude / latitude as mentioned above.

Please also tell use your version of R and at least the version of
rgdal, sessionInfo() gives a good summary.

Cheers, Mike.
> Thanks in advance of any help/suggestions
>
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>
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-- 
Michael Sumner
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania
Hobart, Australia
e-mail: mdsumner at gmail.com