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[IDV #ZIL-902685]: Plotting Winds



Greetings Stephen,

Ok, let's do that for model output.

First, there are two windows in the IDV - the Dashboard (it has
tabs for Data Choosers, Field Selector, Displays), and the second
is the main map display. Please try the following:

1) Go to the Dashboard and click on the "Data Choosers" tab.

2) On the left-hand side of the Dashboard, click General->Catalogs.

3) In the middle of the Dashboard window, you should see several 
enteries under "IDV catalog". Click the little sideways triangle
and open up "Unidata IDD Model Data" -> "UCAR (motherlode)" ->
"Global Forecast System Model" -> "NCEP GFS CONUS 80 km" and
select "Latest NCEP GFS CONUS 80 km". This will get you the most
recent run of the GFS from NCEP. Once you have "Latest NCEP GFS 
CONUS 80 km" selected, click "Add Source" at the bottom of the
Dashboard.

4) The Dashboard will automatically take you to the Field Selector
tab - this is where you can choose what variables / kinds of
displays you'd like to create. First, select the variable you'd
like to plot. For winds, look under the "Fields" panel, and click
"3D grid" -> "Derived" -> "Flow Vectors (from u_wind & v_wind)"

5) Now, to the right of the "Fields" panel, select "Flow Displays" ->
"Wind Barb Plan View".

6) The data will be pull across the network, and this can sometimes be
slow (especially if the grids are big). Let's select just the first three
or so time steps. Below the "Displays" panel, click on the "Times" tab,
click on the dropdown box and select "Use Selected", and then select
the first time step, hold the shift key, and select the range of times
you'd like to display.

7) At the bottom of the Dashboard window, click "Create Display"

This will cause the main map view window to appear and display a barb 
plot of winds at 1000 mb. If you look on the right side of the window,
you will see the Legend - click "flowvectors - ..."to access the display
controls (this takes you back to the dashboard).

8) The controls for the barb display are pretty simple. The display 
is pretty cluttered when all grid points are plotted, so it's a good
idea to set the "Skip: XY:" value to something like 2 or 3. Also, you
wanted 200 mb, so set the "Levels" dropdown box to 200.

Now, to get the speeds on there (if you don't like reading those from
the barbs), return to the Dashboard and click on the Field Selector tab,
and look under "3D grid" -> Derived -> Speed (from u_wind & v_wind). For
the Display, select "Color-Filled Contour Plan View", select the times you 
want to display, and click "Create Display". Again, this will plot the wind
speeds at 1000mb - you will need to go back to the Dashboard and, under the
Displays tab, select the "windspeed -..." display on the left side of the
window, and set the "Levels" dropdown box to 200.

That should get you started :-)

Cheers,

Sean


> I just want to plot say barbs and speeds to show jets.
> Yes I am going to go through the tutorial.
> Thanks,
> Stephen
> 
> address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> > Greetings Stephen,
> >
> > Are you wanting to plot wind barbs or vectors, or just wind speed? Also,
> > are you wanting to look at model output or RAOB data?
> >
> > Also, if you are somewhat new to the IDV, you may find the tutorial
> > useful (it's what we cover in our training workshop):
> >
> > https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/idv/docs/workshop/
> >
> > Cheers!
> >
> > Sean
> >
> > > Full Name: Stephen Keebler
> > > Email Address: address@hidden
> > > Organization: The National Weather Service
> > > Package Version:
> > > Operating System:
> > > Hardware:
> > > Description of problem: I am taking this step by step. How do I plot
> > total winds say at 200mb?
> > > Thanks,
> > > Stephen
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > Ticket Details
> > ===================
> > Ticket ID: ZIL-902685
> > Department: Support IDV
> > Priority: Normal
> > Status: Open
> >
> >
> 
> 
> --
> *Stephen Keebler*
> *Winter Weather Program Leader*
> *Backup Program Leader*
> *EEO Program Leader*
> *Outreach Team*
> *Wilmington North Carolina*
> 
> 


Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: ZIL-902685
Department: Support IDV
Priority: Normal
Status: Open