Welcome to the earthkit-plots documentation¶

Important

This software is in release candidate stage. It is not yet considered stable and may still undergo significant changes before the final 1.0 release. We welcome feedback and contributions as we approach that milestone.

earthkit-plots is a high-level Python library for producing publication-quality scientific graphics with minimal code. Built on matplotlib, cartopy, xarray, and the broader earthkit ecosystem, it enriches these tools with domain-specific knowledge so you can focus on your data rather than plot configuration.

Key features:

Concise API - generate complex visualisations in just a few lines.
Automatic data extraction - reads GRIB, netCDF, and zarr data; works with xarray DataArrays and NumPy arrays; handles geographic coordinates, grids, and CRS automatically.
Intelligent formatting - titles, labels, and colour scales adapt based on detected metadata, variables, and units.
Style libraries - swap styles to match your organisation, project, or preferences.
Complex grids out of the box - HEALPix, reduced Gaussian, and more with no extra legwork.

Important

This software is Incubating and subject to ECMWF’s guidelines on Software Maturity.

Quick start

earthkit-plots provides a high level api to quickly visualise data.

(
    ekp.geo.plot(era5_2t, domain="Europe", units="celsius")
    .title("ERA5 monthly averaged {variable_name} over {domain} - {time:%B %Y}")
    .borders()
    .gridlines()
    .show()
)

Examples

Documentation

Installation

Projects

earthkit