Equivalent of R geosphere::distGeo in Python

July 10, 2023

I am translating R code to Python. I can’t find a function to match the output of R function geosphere::distGeo in Python.
I have looked at a lot of answers here and it seems the Python equivalent is geopy.distance.geodesic, but the results don’t match. R code gives 440km and Python code give 392km.

I am looking for a Python function (or maybe just parameters the good parameters ?) to match the 440km given by R.

I have tried this :

R code

lyon = c(45.7597, 4.8422) # (latitude, longitude)
paris = c(48.8567, 2.3508)
geosphere::distGeo(lyon, paris) / 1000 # default is WGS84 and meters
# 440.7626 km

Python code

from geopy.distance import geodesic
lyon = (45.7597, 4.8422) # (latitude, longitude)
paris = (48.8567, 2.3508)
geodesic(lyon, paris, ellipsoid="WGS-84").km
# 392.4315 km

>Solution :

Your comment says (latitude, longitude) but actually they go the other way around in geopy.distance.geodesic().

from geopy.distance import geodesic
lyon = (4.8422, 45.7597) # (latitude, longitude)
paris = (2.3508, 48.8567)
geodesic(lyon, paris, ellipsoid="WGS-84").km
# 440.76257985857796