On solving coordinate problems in climate model output and other geospatial datasets

List of Authors

  1. Clément Cherblanc ,  
  2. Jeppe Peder Grejs Petersen ,  
  3. Fredrick Bunt
    ,  
  4. José Abraham Torres-Alavez
    ,  
  5. Ruth Mottram
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Abstract

The output from Regional Climate Models (RCMs) can be difficult for non-specialists to handle, especially in cases where metadata describing coordinate systems is incomplete or absent. Standard geospatial analysis tools expect coordinate reference systems to be encoded inside file metadata. In addition to different metadata conventions, RCMs that are run over limited domains in the Arctic and Antarctic frequently have rotated longitude and latitude grids that add additional complexity compared to geographic datasets. In this article, we describe two post-processing methods that make RCM outputs easier to use for applications in the climate and related sciences. We demonstrate two different approaches that allow output from RCMs to be 1) read on the correct grid without interpolating or reprojecting the dataset, or 2) resampled onto a regular grid that includes geographic coordinates. These two approaches use the widely available and free software tools Python and Climate Data Operators (CDO). These transformations make outputs simple to use in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and allow the full use of Python libraries, such as xarray, for plotting and analysis.

Plain Language Summary

The datasets exist on grids with coordinates. The coordinates of one grid can be related to those of another using a coordinate reference system. Lack or poor encoding of coordinate reference systems can lead to incompatibilities, errors, approximations, and bottlenecks. We present ways to read the coordinate reference systems correctly and to recover them if they are missing, using two programming languages. We provide real case examples and discuss the implications of the presented methods.

Corresponding author
Clément Cherblanc
0009-0007-6645-6288
Grant information

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme called H2020-LC-CLA-2018-2019-2020 under grant agreement number 101003590- PolarRES-Polar Regions in the Earth System, and the European Space Agency through the Ice Sheets CCI (Grant 4000126523/18/I-NB). CC was supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation PRECISE project grant no. NNF23OC0081251. JGP was supported by the ESA Climate Modeling Users Group Project.

Copyright
© 2025 Clément Cherblanc (Corresponding Author, Co-Author); Jeppe Peder Grejs Petersen (Co-Author); Fredrick Bunt (Co-Author); José Abraham Torres-Alavez (Co-Author); Ruth Mottram (Co-Author) Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Amendment

This revised version of the manuscript incorporated suggestions from the reviewers. Following their comments: we strengthened the justification for this article; we introduced a better benchmarking of performance and of the advantages of each method over the other; we also clarified the difference between interpolation and coordinate transformation, insisting on the key differences and limitations of the existing software; we defined UTM CRS and show to identify them; we fixed minor typos and improved wording. The implementation of the suggestions and remarks from the reviewers significantly improved this publication.

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Authors & roles

Clément Cherblanc

National Center for Climate Research, Danish Meteorological Institute, Copenhagen, 2100, Denmark

Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 2200, Denmark

Roles
Corresponding Author, Co-Author, Conceptualization, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – Original Draft Preparation
0009-0007-6645-6288

Jeppe Peder Grejs Petersen

National Center for Climate Research, Danish Meteorological Institute, Copenhagen, 2100, Denmark

Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 2200, Denmark

Roles
Co-Author, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – Review & Editing
0009-0005-1002-107X

Fredrick Bunt

Department of Computer Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, 59812, USA

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Validation, Writing – Review & Editing

José Abraham Torres-Alavez

National Center for Climate Research, Danish Meteorological Institute, Copenhagen, 2100, Denmark

Roles
Co-Author, Data Curation

Ruth Mottram

National Center for Climate Research, Danish Meteorological Institute, Copenhagen, 2100, Denmark

Roles
Co-Author, Funding Acquisition, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-1016-1997

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