Many meteorological and climate agencies (e.g., Environment and Climate Change Canada) distribute GRIB2 and NetCDF datasets in a rotated latitude–longitude coordinate system. This system reduces distortion over model domains but is not currently recognized as a formal EPSG projection. As a result, ArcGIS Pro cannot directly display or analyze these datasets without preprocessing.
https://eccc-msc.github.io/open-data/msc-data/nwp_hrdps/readme_hrdps-datamart_en/#high-resolution-de...
Users must rely on GDAL or similar tools to “unrotate” data before import. This adds workflow complexity and creates barriers for organizations that rely on ArcGIS Pro as their primary GIS environment. Competing platforms such as QGIS (via GDAL/PROJ) already provide more flexible handling of rotated grids, allowing users to visualize and analyze such data with less preprocessing.
Rotated latitude–longitude is widely used in operational meteorology and climate modeling. Agencies like ECCC provide high-value, near–real-time public datasets in this format. Demand is increasing in the geospatial community for seamless integration of earth system data with traditional GIS workflows. Lack of direct support in ArcGIS Pro pushes users to external tools or alternate platforms, reducing Esri’s competitiveness for climate and environmental applications.
Add native support for rotated latitude–longitude coordinate systems in ArcGIS Pro, either by:
Extending the coordinate engine to handle rotated pole definitions (pole position + axis rotation parameters, per CF conventions), or
Providing an import option that recognizes rotated grids in GRIB2/NetCDF metadata and transparently reprojects them to standard geographic coordinates for display and analysis.
Adopting these ideas would elminate the need for preprocessing of the data and reduce data duplication and allow user to connect and analyze the data directly. It would also improve ArcGIS Pro’s interoperability with authoritative climate and meteorological data sources.
