Animating a gridded surface

This example demonstrates how to animate gridded data using pcolormesh().

Once Loop Reflect

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.animation import FuncAnimation
import numpy as np
import cartopy.crs as ccrs

fig = plt.figure(figsize=(10, 5))
ax = plt.axes(projection=ccrs.Robinson())
ax.set_global()
ax.coastlines()

x = np.linspace(-80, 80)
xs, ys = np.meshgrid(2 * x + 180, x)
zs = xs + ys
vmin, vmax = np.min(zs), np.max(zs)
mesh = ax.pcolormesh(xs, ys, np.zeros_like(zs), transform=ccrs.PlateCarree(),
                     shading='auto', vmin=vmin, vmax=vmax)

n = 10


def update_mesh(t):
    mesh.set_array(zs.ravel() * t)


ts = [i / n for i in range(n)]
# Go back to the start to make it a smooth repeat
ts += ts[::-1]
ani = FuncAnimation(fig, update_mesh, frames=ts,
                    interval=100)

plt.show()