Python toolbox for ROMS grid files based on explicit map projections.
Many approaches, such as Seagrid (Matlab), Gridpak (Fortran), Gridgen (python) are using advanced numerics to generate orhogonal grids based on prescribed boundaries. This gives great flexibility for adapting the grid to the coastal geometry. The downside is that there is no obvious mapping between longitude/latitude and the grid coordinates.
Gridmap has a different approach. The grid is based on well documented orhogonal map projections. The generated grid is therefore automatically orhogonal (in most cases even orthonormal) and there is an explicit transformation between lon/lat and grid coordinates. It is presently independent of solvers in Fortran or C making it easy to install. At some point it may develop to depend on the pyproj package to benefit from the large range of projections provided. Presently it focuses on the polar stereographic projection, a good choice at relative high latitudes.
Bjørn Ådlandsvik <bjorn at imr.no> Institute of Marine Research 2014-10-08