Welcome back to AWIPS Tips! Previously, we showed you how to open and use the Volume Browser to create plan view displays. This week we’re exploring two additional display types you can create in the Volume Browser: vertical cross sections and time series. These display types use the Points and Baselines tools, which we introduced in the last AWIPS Tips blog.
Cross sections
Vertical cross sections, or cross sections, are rendered from a 3D volume of data along a Baseline or predefined latitude and longitude pairs. Cross sections can loop through time or space. For more information on opening and interacting with the menus and sections in the Volume Browser, refer to AWIPS Tips: Explore the CAVE Volume Browser. To create a cross section in the Volume Browser:- In the Plan View (display type) menu, choose Cross section.
- In the Time menu, choose your desired loop type. (Note that many of the menus in the Volume Browser will change their label when a new option is chosen.)
- Choose your vertical extent. By default this is a logarithmic scale from 1050 mb - 150 mb, but can be changed by selecting the Log 1050-150 menu.
- Choose your desired sources and fields.
- In the Planes section, under the Specified drop-down, choose your desired baseline. You may also choose predefined latitude and longitude locations from the Lon and Lat drop-downs.
- Ensure your desired products in the Product Selection List are selected, then click Load.
After loading, a Cross Section editor opens in a new tab. In the upper-right you will see a reference map with the baseline used to generate the cross section. The elevation profile and approximate city locations along the baseline are displayed on the lower (x) axis. The appearance of products (colors, dashes, etc) can be modified in the Product Resource Stack similar to the experience in the default plan view editors.
TIP: To view a product as an image rather than contours, hold-right-click on the product in the Product Resource Stack and choose Load as Image.
Time Series
Time series show how variables change over time at a point with static horizontal and vertical position.
To create a time series in the Volume Browser:
- In the Plan View (display type) menu, choose Time series.
- Choose your time series reference point from the Point menu (by default this will be labeled Point A, but will change its label when another point is chosen).
- Choose your desired sources and fields.
- In the Planes section, choose the vertical level for the point. You can choose from any of the predefined items in the drop-down menus.
- Ensure your desired products in the Product Selection List are selected, then click Load.
TIP: You can select many different products to load into a Time Series editor. Any variables that share the same units will be drawn on the same axes. All other variables will draw on their own axes.
After loading, a Time Series editor opens in a new tab. Like cross sections, a reference map is shown in the upper-right corner. The appearance of the products can be modified using the hold-right-click menus in the Product Resource Stack.
Check back in two weeks for the next blog post where we'll talk about productivity with procedures and displays.
To view archived blogs, visit the AWIPS Tips blog tag, and get notified of the latest updates from the AWIPS team by signing up for the AWIPS mailing list. Questions or suggestions for the team on future topics? Let us know at support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu
This blog was posted in reference to v18.2.1-1 of NSF Unidata AWIPS
