id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	priority	milestone	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc
1581	Datum recognition problem Alber's Equal Area Conic Conformal	neteler	warmerdam	"Frank,

(this is based on a GRASS user request, Steve in CC:
 http://grass.itc.it/pipermail/grassuser/2007-April/039354.html
""...the data come in UTM about 19.3km north of where they should be...""
)

downloading the US MODIS NDVI data, it appears that the datum isn't read
correctly:

Should be:
ftp://ftp.glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/modis/NDVI/United_States/2000/US.Albers.2000081/USVI.UserGuide.txt
"" Projection:	Alber's Equal Area Conic Conformal
	- reprojected from native MODIS projection: Sinusoidal
	- Central Meridian used was 96d W
	- std Parallels of 29d 30' 0"" and 45d 30' 0""
	- Latitude of Origin is 0d 0' 0""
	- Easting & Northing are 0.0000000000 m
	- Datum: sphere (a sphere of radius 6370997 m)
	- Resolution is 250 meters
""

Reported (recent GDAL SVN HEAD):

{{{
gdalinfo US.Albers.2000081.ndvi.tif
Driver: GTiff/GeoTIFF
Size is 21000, 13000
Coordinate System is:
PROJCS[""unnamed"",
    GEOGCS[""Unknown datum based upon the Authalic Sphere"",
        DATUM[""Not_specified_based_on_Authalic_Sphere"",
            SPHEROID[""Sphere"",6370997,0,
                AUTHORITY[""EPSG"",""7035""]],
            AUTHORITY[""EPSG"",""6035""]],
        PRIMEM[""Greenwich"",0],
        UNIT[""degree"",0.0174532925199433],
        AUTHORITY[""EPSG"",""4035""]],
    PROJECTION[""Albers_Conic_Equal_Area""],
    PARAMETER[""standard_parallel_1"",29.5],
    PARAMETER[""standard_parallel_2"",45.5],
    PARAMETER[""latitude_of_center"",0],
    PARAMETER[""longitude_of_center"",-96],
    PARAMETER[""false_easting"",0],
    PARAMETER[""false_northing"",0],
    UNIT[""metre"",1,
        AUTHORITY[""EPSG"",""9001""]]]
Origin = (-2356750.000000000000000,5769500.000000000000000)
Pixel Size = (250.000000000000000,-250.000000000000000)
Metadata:
  AREA_OR_POINT=Point
  TIFFTAG_SOFTWARE=hdf2geotiff v0.1.5
Corner Coordinates:
Upper Left  (-2356750.000, 5769500.000) (128d59'15.31""W, 49d50'21.28""N)
Lower Left  (-2356750.000, 2519500.000) (118d30'25.87""W, 21d47'47.16""N)
Upper Right ( 2893250.000, 5769500.000) ( 56d16'50.11""W, 48d 0'54.53""N)
Lower Right ( 2893250.000, 2519500.000) ( 68d37'26.12""W, 20d30'41.05""N)
Center      (  268250.000, 4144500.000) ( 92d52'8.97""W, 38d54'34.96""N)
Band 1 Block=21000x1 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Gray
}}}


Dataset: 
ftp://ftp.glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/modis/NDVI/United_States/2000/US.Albers.2000081/
-> US.Albers.2000081.ndvi.tif.gz

I wonder if this could be fixed if there is anything to fix (probably PROJCS?).
Myself, I didn't try to reproject to UTM. Steve, the reporter, is in CC.

Best regards,
Markus"	defect	closed	normal		OGR_SRS	unspecified	normal	invalid		archaeologist@…