Grid

[sallyanne]

I finally worked out how to do similar although the grid lines suffered
     
Do your grid. I did 1000 by 1000
Curve bend it. Bring the left and right sides up to the top making sure the centre stays in the middle (I had to pull it back down). Mirror it
90% turn then repeat.
It will end up way too big so you may have to crop it to just the centre.
Make your sphere using the same size template you used before. I used the Filters > Render > Sphere designer which gives you several options
Rescale to 75% then cut and paste as a layer to your warped grid.
Merge and export