GRASS GIS

GRASS (originally Geographic Resources Analysis Support System, formerly often referred to as GRASS GIS) is a software package used for geospatial data management and analysis, image processing, producing graphics and maps, spatial and temporal modeling, and visualizing. It can handle raster, topological vector, image processing, and graphic data, and it can be used as a geographic information system (GIS).

GRASS contains over 400 modules to render maps and images on monitor and paper; manipulate raster and vector data including vector networks; process multispectral image data; and create, manage, and store spatial data.

It is licensed and released as free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It runs on multiple operating systems, including OS X, Windows and Linux. Users can interface with the software features through a graphical user interface (GUI) or by plugging into GRASS via other software such as QGIS. They can also interface with the modules directly through a bespoke shell that the application launches or by calling individual modules directly from a standard shell.

The GRASS development team is a multinational group consisting of developers at many locations. GRASS is one of the eight initial software projects of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation and is fiscally sponsored by NumFOCUS.