We illustrate the power and flexibility of a new extension point in Xarray's data model: "custom indexes" that allow Xarray users to neatly handle complex grids, and enables at least one new data model (vector data cubes). We present a whirlwind tour of specific examples to illustrate the power of this feature, and aim to stimulate experimentation during the sprints.

Over the past few years, Discrete Global Grid Systems (DGGS) that subdivide the earth into (roughly) equally sized faces have seen a rise in popularity. However, their in-memory representation is different from traditional projection-based data, which is either comprised of evenly shaped rectangular grid (aka raster) or discrete geometries (aka vector), and thus requires specialized tooling. In particular, this includes libraries that can work on the numeric cell ids defined by the specific DGGS.

xdggs is a library that provides a unified interface for xarray that allows working with and visualizing a variety of DGGS-indexed data sets.