Summary
The Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS) is a Geographic
Information System (GIS) used for data management, image processing, graphics
production, spatial modeling, and visualization of many types of data. It is
free software released under GNU General Public License (GPL). Originally
written by the U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research ... Laboratories
(USA-CERL, 1982-1995), a branch of the US Army Corp of Engineers, as a tool for
land management and environmental planning by the military, GRASS has evolved
into a powerful utility with a wide range of applications in many different
areas of scientific research. GRASS is currently used in academic and
commercial settings around the world, as well as many governmental agencies
including NASA, NOAA, USDA, the National Park Service, the U.S. Census Bureau,
USGS, and many environmental consulting companies.

GRASS allows users to analyze, store, update, model, and display data quickly
and easily. Although it was originally developed for use in land planning, its
capabilities have been expanded and used in the fields of engineering,
hydrology, geology, physics, statistics, remote sensing, business, and many
others.

Due to the rapid growth and popularity of GRASS, the GRASS Development Team has
grown into a multi-national team consisting of developers at numerous
locations. The development currently underway has resulted in new GRASS
versions, the release of new manuals and documentation, as well as continued
research and development for new versions.

The GRASS GIS is run through the use of either a standardized command line
input, or an Graphical User Interface based on Tcl/Tk. GRASS is also
supported under Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista. GRASS can be
used in shell scripts which allow users and programmers to create new
applications and link GRASS to other software packages. For programming a fully
documented C-API (> 800 GIS library functions) is provided. Users can input new
data through digitization, CD-ROM, USK key disk, or DVD drive.

[Summary provided by GRASS Development Team]

Related URL

Link: VIEW RELATED INFORMATION Description: The GRASS Information Page where users can view additional information on the GRASS software, link to FAQ pages, view software documentation, search for contacts, and subscribe to GRASS mailing lists. Link: GET DATA Description: Available GRASS data for download. Link: GET SERVICE > GET SOFTWARE PACKAGE Description: GRASS program for download.

Service Citation

Originators: U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories Title: Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS) Release_Date: 1999-01-01 Provider: GRASS Development Team/OSGeo Edition: 6.3 URL: http://grass.osgeo.org/

Service Keywords

DATA ANALYSIS AND VISUALIZATION >VISUALIZATION/IMAGE PROCESSING DATA ANALYSIS AND VISUALIZATION >GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS >DESKTOP GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Science Keywords

AGRICULTURE >AGRICULTURAL AQUATIC SCIENCES AGRICULTURE >ANIMAL SCIENCE AGRICULTURE >FOOD SCIENCE AGRICULTURE >FOREST SCIENCE AGRICULTURE >PLANT COMMODITIES AGRICULTURE >SOILS ATMOSPHERE >AEROSOLS ATMOSPHERE >AIR QUALITY ATMOSPHERE >ALTITUDE ATMOSPHERE >ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY ATMOSPHERE >ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY ATMOSPHERE >ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA ATMOSPHERE >ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE ATMOSPHERE >ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION ATMOSPHERE >ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE ATMOSPHERE >ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR ATMOSPHERE >ATMOSPHERIC WINDS ATMOSPHERE >CLOUDS ATMOSPHERE >PRECIPITATION BIOSPHERE >AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS BIOSPHERE >TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS BIOSPHERE >VEGETATION BIOSPHERE >TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS >WETLANDS CRYOSPHERE >FROZEN GROUND CRYOSPHERE >SEA ICE CRYOSPHERE >SNOW/ICE HUMAN DIMENSIONS >HUMAN HEALTH HUMAN DIMENSIONS >INFRASTRUCTURE HUMAN DIMENSIONS >LAND USE/LAND COVER HUMAN DIMENSIONS >NATURAL HAZARDS HUMAN DIMENSIONS >POPULATION TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE >GROUND WATER TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE >SURFACE WATER TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE >WATER QUALITY/WATER CHEMISTRY LAND SURFACE >GEOMORPHOLOGY LAND SURFACE >LAND TEMPERATURE LAND SURFACE >LAND USE/LAND COVER LAND SURFACE >LANDSCAPE LAND SURFACE >SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES LAND SURFACE >TOPOGRAPHY OCEANS >AQUATIC SCIENCES OCEANS >BATHYMETRY/SEAFLOOR TOPOGRAPHY OCEANS >COASTAL PROCESSES OCEANS >MARINE ENVIRONMENT MONITORING OCEANS >MARINE SEDIMENTS OCEANS >MARINE VOLCANISM OCEANS >OCEAN CIRCULATION OCEANS >OCEAN HEAT BUDGET OCEANS >OCEAN PRESSURE OCEANS >OCEAN TEMPERATURE OCEANS >OCEAN WAVES OCEANS >OCEAN WINDS OCEANS >SALINITY/DENSITY OCEANS >SEA ICE OCEANS >SEA SURFACE TOPOGRAPHY OCEANS >TIDES PALEOCLIMATE >ICE CORE RECORDS PALEOCLIMATE >LAND RECORDS PALEOCLIMATE >OCEAN/LAKE RECORDS SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING >RADAR SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING >RADIO WAVE SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING >ULTRAVIOLET WAVELENGTHS SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING >VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS SOLID EARTH >GEOCHEMISTRY SOLID EARTH >GEODETICS/GRAVITY SOLID EARTH >GEOMAGNETISM SOLID EARTH >GEOMORPHOLOGY SOLID EARTH >GEOTHERMAL SOLID EARTH >NATURAL RESOURCES SOLID EARTH >ROCKS/MINERALS SOLID EARTH >SEISMOLOGY SOLID EARTH >TECTONICS SOLID EARTH >VOLCANOES BIOSPHERE >AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS >WETLANDS

ISO Topic Category

FARMING ECONOMY ENVIRONMENT GEOSCIENTIFIC INFORMATION CLIMATOLOGY/METEOROLOGY/ATMOSPHERE BIOTA INLAND WATERS OCEANS HEALTH UTILITIES/COMMUNICATIONS TRANSPORTATION IMAGERY/BASE MAPS/EARTH COVER PLANNING CADASTRE SOCIETY ELEVATION STRUCTURE

Platform

MODELS

Access Constraints
GRASS will only work under the following platforms:

UNIX environment through a graphical user interface and shell in X-Window,
MS-Windows (NT/2000/XP/Vista natively or with Cygwin), and MacOS X.

Use Constraints
GRASS is free software, you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation, either version 2 of the license, or (at your option) any later
version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Ancillary Keywords

Geographic Informatin Systems GIS Raster Data Topographic Data Vector Data Image Viewing Image Processing Graphics Open Source

Service Provider

OSGEO > Open Source Geospatial Foundation Service Organization URL: https://www.osgeo.org/ Service Provider Personnel Name: MARKUS NETELER Phone: +39-0461-939-545 Fax: +39-0461-939-545-190 Email: neteler at osgeo.org Contact Address: Fondazione Mach - Centro di Ecologia Alpina Attn. M. Neteler/OSGeo Caserma City: Viote del Monte Bondone (Trento) Province or State: TN Postal Code: 38100 Country: Italy

Distribution Media

Distribution_Media: WWW Fees: None Distribution_Media: FTP Fees: None Distribution_Media: CD-ROM/DVD Distribution_Media: USB Key

Personnel

TYLER B. STEVENS Role: SERF AUTHOR Phone: (301) 614-6898 Fax: 301-614-5268 Email: Tyler.B.Stevens at nasa.gov Contact Address: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Global Change Master Directory City: Greenbelt Province or State: MD Postal Code: 20771 Country: USA MARKUS NETELER Role: TECHNICAL CONTACT Phone: +39-0461-939-545 Fax: +39-0461-939-545-190 Email: neteler at osgeo.org Contact Address: Fondazione Mach - Centro di Ecologia Alpina Attn. M. Neteler/OSGeo Caserma City: Viote del Monte Bondone (Trento) Province or State: TN Postal Code: 38100 Country: Italy

Publications/References
Markus Neteler and Helena Mitasova. Open Source GIS: A GRASS GIS
Approach. Springer, New York, 3. Edition 2008.

Creation and Review Dates

SERF Creation Date: 2003-01-06 SERF Last Revision Date: 2008-02-22

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