Cartopy is a Python package designed to make drawing maps for data analysis easy and enjoyable.
Primarily the non-drawing functionality of cartopy makes use of proj.4, numpy, geos and shapely; with simple and intuitive interfacing to matplotlib for map drawing.
Some of the key features of cartopy are:
- object oriented projection definitions
- point, line, polygon and image transformations between projections
- integration to expose advanced mapping in matplotlib with a simple and intuitive interface
- work-in-progress mechanisms for accessing specialist data such as those from the “Shuttle Radar Topography Mission” (SRTM) and the “Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Shoreline” database (GSHHS).
Cartopy is licensed under GNU Lesser General Public License and is at version 0.4.x. You can find the source code for cartopy on our github page.
Installation of cartopy can currently only be done from source. Build instructions for specific operating systems can be found in the building from source section.
To start using cartopy with matplotlib see the Using cartopy with matplotlib section.
Short step-by-step examples are also available.
Cartopy was originally developed at the UK Met Office to allow scientists to visualise their data on maps quickly, easily and most importantly, accurately. Cartopy has since been made freely available under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License and is suitable to be used in a variety of scientific fields.
There are many ways to get involved in the development of cartopy:
- Report bugs to https://github.com/SciTools/cartopy/issues (please look to see if there are any outstanding bugs which cover the issue before making a new one).
- Helping others with support questions on stackoverflow.
If you or your organisation use cartopy, we would love to hear about it.
