Support seam-crossing regional longitude grids (open periodic axis)

[vadmbertr]

Motivation

Requiring a periodic longitude grid to span exactly one period (nlon * dlon == lon_period) rejects a regional subset that crosses the antimeridian — e.g. longitudes running 170°E … 180° … -170° (= 190°E), spanning ~20°, not 360°.

Such a slab is topologically an open interval with the seam interior to it, so it behaves exactly like a bounded grid (nlon-1 interior faces, clip indexing, extrapolation past its two ends). The only periodic thing it needs is folding a query given in either convention (-175 or 185) into the grid's window. This lets you declare circularity once via lon_period at grid/dataset creation and get seam continuity automatically — no manual unwrapping or query folding.

Approach

A three-way classification of the longitude axis, resolved statically at trace time so interpolation stays jit/vmap/grad-safe (never a data-dependent branch):

axis	condition	behaviour
bounded	lon_period is None	non-periodic (unchanged)
closed / global	lon_period set, spans one period	wraps (i+1) % n (unchanged, byte-identical)
open / seam-crossing	lon_period set, spans less	centred query fold + bounded path (new)

open = bounded grid + a query pre-fold, so there are no interpolation-kernel changes. The open path is realized at the Field/Dataset dispatch sites by folding the query and reusing the existing lon_period=None path.

Changes

• grid.py: new static lon_closed field and closed_for(stagger) accessor; u_face_coords gives nlon-1 interior midpoint faces on an open grid (vs the seam-inclusive nlon faces on a closed one).
• forcing.py:
  • _check_periodic_lon → _classify_and_unwrap_lon: classifies closed vs open, unwraps a seam-crossing axis to a monotonic ascending representation (so every downstream consumer stays seam-agnostic), still rejects descending axes and period overshoot, and runs in float64 on the host before the storage cast.
  • Optional lon_closed= override on all loaders — authoritative when passed, so an open grid can be built under tracing where the axis can't be classified.
  • Field.lon_closed property; the open-grid query fold applied at interp, neighborhood, the velocity_interp partial-slip path, and standalone.
  • The fold centres its modulo branch cut in the uncovered arc opposite the grid, so both near-edge extrapolation zones stay well-behaved and differentiable.

Behaviour changes

• A sub-period grid with lon_period set is now a valid open grid rather than an error. Period overshoot (duplicate wrap endpoint) and descending axes still raise.
• Periodic grids are stored unwrapped (strictly ascending), so lon_coords reads back e.g. 190 where -170 was passed. Queries may still be given in any convention; they are folded automatically.
• Queries outside an open grid's covered arc extrapolate (like a bounded grid) rather than wrapping to the far side.

Tests

Full suite: 338 passed, 2 skipped (closed/global path unchanged and byte-identical). The two previous span-check tests that rejected sub-period grids now assert they load as open grids; overshoot/descending still raise. New coverage: seam continuity, representation invariance (-175 == 185), open-vs-closed extrapolation, jit/vmap/grad safety (grad finite and ≈1 across the seam), the neighborhood clamp, the lon_closed= override under jit, and open C-grid interior-midpoint faces.