RGB polar plot in Python

Question

I am trying to produce RGB polar plots in Python and I was expecting matplotlib.pyplot.imshow to be able to do it. However, whenever I try plotting data using this method I obtain a blank output.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

data = np.array([[[0,0,1],[0,1,0],[1,0,0]],[[0,0,0.5],[0,0.5,0],[0.5,0,0]]])
# Sample, any N,M,3 data should work
ax = plt.subplot(111,polar=True)
ax.imshow(data,extent=[0,2*np.pi,0,1]) # Produces a white circle

Is there a good way to accomplish this using the aforementioned method or another ?

Thanks.

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EDIT: I managed to make a single quadrant by using extent=[0,np.pi/2,0,1] but its use is clearly bugged for polar plots. since anything but a full quadrant doesn't produce the expected outcome.

Answer 1

Using imshow on a polar plot is unfortunately not possible, because the imshow grid is necessarily quadratic in its pixels. You may however use pcolormesh and apply a trick (similar to this one), namely to provide the colors as color argument to pcolormesh, as it would usually just take 2D input.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

data = np.array([[[0,0,1],[0,1,0],[1,0,0]],
                 [[0,0,0.5],[0,0.5,0],[0.5,0,0]]])

ax = plt.subplot(111, polar=True)

#get coordinates:
phi = np.linspace(0,2*np.pi,data.shape[1]+1)
r = np.linspace(0,1,data.shape[0]+1)
Phi,R = np.meshgrid(phi, r)
# get color
color = data.reshape((data.shape[0]*data.shape[1],data.shape[2]))

# plot colormesh with Phi, R as coordinates, 
# and some 2D array of the same shape as the image, except the last dimension
# provide colors as `color` argument
m = plt.pcolormesh(Phi,R,data[:,:,0], color=color, linewidth=0)
# This is necessary to let the `color` argument determine the color
m.set_array(None)


plt.show()

The result is not a circle because you do not have enough points. Repeating the data, data = np.repeat(data, 25, axis=1) would then allow to get a circle.