The Equal-Area Scalable Earth Grid (EASE-Grid) is intended to be
a versatile tool for users of global-scale gridded data, specifically
remotely sensed data, although it is gaining popularity as a common
gridding scheme for data from other sources as well. Data from various
sources can be expressed as digital arrays of varying grid resolutions,
which are defined in relation to one of the three possible projections.
The user will find that visualization and intercomparison operations
are then greatly simplified, and that the tasks of analysis and
intercomparison can be more readily accomplished.
  |
 |
| The EASE-Grid projections:
Northern and Southern hemispheres (Lambert's equal-area, azimuthal),
and global (cylindrical, equal-area). EASE-Grid users may specify
any subset area of these projections, and any grid resolution. |
The EASE-Grid consists of a set of three equal-area projections,
combined with an infinite number of possible grid definitions. It
is based on a philosophy of digital mapping and gridding definitions
that was developed at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, in
Boulder, CO. This philosophy was used to implement a library of
software routines (see the the Data Software & Programming Tools page, and follow the Mapx link for source code), which
are based on the assumption that a gridded data set is completely
defined by two abstractions, the map projection and an overlaid
lattice of grid points.
Readers who wish to review detailed EASE-Grid projection mathematics
should see the Details page. The collection of data sets in EASE-Grid
format is growing, but the current list can be found on the Products
page. A list of tools to be used with EASE-Grid products is available
from the Geolocation Tools page. Finally, a history of EASE-Grid
development is provided in the History page.
