GEMPAK Online Tutorial

12. Vertical Plotting

GEMPAK supports the following known vertical coordinates:

NONE - Surface Data
PRES - Pressure
HGHT - Height
THTA - Potential Temperature
SGMA - Sigma

Other vertical coordinates that GEMPAK doesn't know about can be handled as long as they are 4 letter representations, such as ETAL.

Sounding Data Cross Sections

sncross draws cross sections using upper-air sounding data. The cross-section line, CXSTNS, must be specified as a list of stations separated with semicolons.

Alternatively, a single station may be entered in CXSTNS and a list of times in DATTIM. In this case, a time section will be drawn.

The plot background consists of a pressure axis, a horizontal axis with the station names, a filled region indicating the part of the plot below the earth surface, and vertical lines at each station.

The horizontal axis represents a straight line between the first and last stations. The positions of intervening stations are proportional to the perpendicular projections of the actual positions onto the section line. All of these calculations are done in lat/lon coordinates. If the plot is a time section, the times will be displayed on the x axis with the earliest time at the left. If the first character in TAXIS is an R, the earliest time will appear on the right.

The vertical coordinate may be specified as LIN, LOG, or STUVE; SKEWT is not valid in this program. The bottom and top limits for the y axis are specified in YAXIS, but the axis labeling specifications are ignored.

SNCROSS Input Parameters

CXSTNS    Cross-section station line
SNPARM    Sounding parameter list
SNFILE    Sounding data file
DATTIM    Date/time
VCOORD    Vertical coordinate type
PTYPE     Plot type/h:w ratio/margins
YAXIS     Ystrt/ystop/yinc/lbl;gln;tck
TAXIS     Time1-time2-tinc;lbl;gln;tck
LINE      Color/type/width/label/smth/fltr/scflg
BORDER    Background color/type/width
CINT      Contour interval/min/max
WIND      Wind symbol/siz/wdth/typ/hdsz
TITLE     Title color/line/title
PANEL     Panel loc/color/dash/width/regn
DEVICE    Device|name|x size;y size|color type
CLEAR     Clear screen flag
FILTER    Filter data factor
TEXT      Size/fnt/wdth/brdr/N-rot/just/hw flg
CURVE     Curve fit type
CLRBAR    Color/ornt/anch/x;y/ln;wd/freq|text_info
CONTUR    Subbox/smooth
FINT      Fill interval/min/max
FLINE     Fill colors/fill types
CTYPE     Contour type:  C/F

Exercise #17 (Contoured Upper Air Cross-Section)

Draw isentropes in color 3 for the last time in the data set. Plot the background in color 1. Use a logarithmic scale for the y axis and a 5 degree interval for the isentropes. Draw wind barbs in color number 6 with line width 2.

    CXSTNS   =  epz;abq;gjt;riw
    SNPARM   =  thta
    SNFILE   =  uair
    DATTIM   =  0000
    VCOORD   =  pres
    PTYPE    =  log
    YAXIS    =
    TAXIS    =
    LINE     =  3
    BORDER   =  1
    CINT     =  5
    WIND     =  bm6//2
    TITLE    =  1
    PANEL    =  0
    DEVICE   =  xw
    CLEAR    =  y
    FILTER   =  .8
    TEXT     =  1
    CURVE    =  2
    CLRBAR   =
    CONTUR   =  0
    FINT     =  0
    FLINE    =  10-20
    CTYPE    =  C
    GEMPAK-SNCROSS>r

image

Exercise #18 (Filled Upper Air Cross-Section)

Draw filled contours of relative humidity for the same cross section. Fill in contours greater than 50%. Draw a horizontal color bar at the bottom of the plot. Draw the cross section from 1050 mb to 300 mb.

   CXSTNS    =  epz;abq;gjt;riw
   SNPARM    =  relh
   SNFILE    =  uair
   DATTIM    =  0000
   VCOORD    =  pres
   PTYPE     =  log/.5
   YAXIS     =  1050/300
   TAXIS     =
   LINE      =  3
   BORDER    =  1
   CINT      =  5
   WIND      =  bm6//2
   TITLE     =  1
   PANEL     =  0
   DEVICE    =  xw
   CLEAR     =  y
   FILTER    =  .8
   TEXT      =  1
   CURVE     =  2
   CLRBAR    =  1/h
   CONTUR    =  0
   FINT      =  50;60;70;80
   FLINE     =  0;21;22;23;24
   CTYPE     =  f
   GEMPAK-SNCROSS>r

image

Gridded Data Cross-Sections

gdcross draws a vertical cross section between two points in a grid field. The cross-section path is a line segment on the grid projection plane joining the two points. Gridded data are interpolated to the cross-section plane at intervals corresponding to approximately one grid increment.

The vertical coordinate, set in GVCORD, can be PRES, THTA, HGHT, or SGMA. The data must be stored in that vertical coordinate in the grid file. No automatic vertical interpolation is included.

Exercise #19 (Gridded Cross-Section)

Plot temperature in Kelvin on a log-P chart along the cross section from LAX to BWI. Plot the filled contours using colors from 13 to 30. Plot wind barbs for the wind. Plot a horizontal color bar centered under the cross section.

CXSTNS   = lax>bwi
GDATTIM  = f06
GVCORD   = pres
GFUNC    = tmpk
GVECT    = wnd
GDFILE   = gfs
WIND     = bm32
REFVEC   = 10
PTYPE    = log
YAXIS    =  
IJSKIP   = 0
CINT     =  
SCALE    =  
LINE     = 32/1/3
BORDER   = 1
TITLE    = 1
CLEAR    = yes
DEVICE   = xw
TEXT     = 1
PANEL    = 0
CLRBAR   = 1/h/cc/.5;.03/.6;.01
CONTUR   = 3
FINT     = 5
FLINE    = 13-30
CTYPE    = f
GEMPAK-GDCROSS>r

image

Exercise #20 (Nationwide Vorticity Advection Cross-Section)

Using the same cross-section and grid file as before, plot a log pressure cross section of the vorticity advection, scaled by 10**9, colored by positive and negative values as shades of red and blue. Also, plot the ageostrophic circulation using arrows. Use a height-to-width plot ratio of 0.5.

CXSTNS   = lax>bwi
GDATTIM  = f06
GVCORD   = pres
GFUNC    = adv(avor(wnd),wnd)
GVECT    = circ(age;omeg)
GDFILE   = gfs
WIND     = bm32
REFVEC   = 5;.05;.2
PTYPE    = log/0.5
YAXIS    =  
IJSKIP   = 0
CINT     = 1/-3/3
SCALE    = 9
LINE     = 32
BORDER   = 1
TITLE    = 1/-2
CLEAR    = yes
DEVICE   = xw
TEXT     = 1
PANEL    = 0
CLRBAR   = 1/h/lc/.5;.01;.5;.01
CONTUR   = 3
FINT     = 1/-3/3
FLINE    = 24;25;26;27;11;12;13;14
CTYPE    = c/f
GEMPAK-GDCROSS>r

image

Exercise #21 (Gridded Data Vertical Profile)

gdprof draws vertical profiles at a point. Data from each level in the grid file are interpolated to the point.

GPOINT specifies the location for the profile. It may be entered as a latitude and longitude separated with a semicolon, as a station character identifier or station number, or as a set of x and y grid points separated with a semicolon and preceded with an @. The profile location may also be selected graphically with the CURSOR command.

Upper-Air Vertical Plotting

GDPROF draws upper-air profiles using gridded data.

Run GPCOLOR first to set the background color to white:

COLORS   = 101=255:255:255
DEVICE   = xw
GEMPAK-GPCOLOR>

Next run GDPROF for the station iad (Washington DC)

GPOINT   = iad
GDATTIM  = last
GVCORD   = pres
GFUNC    = tmpc
GVECT    = wnd
GDFILE   = gfs
LINE     = 2//3
MARKER   =  
BORDER   = 32
PTYPE    = skewt
SCALE    = 0
XAXIS    = -40/40/10
YAXIS    = 1000/100/100/;1
WIND     = bm32
REFVEC   = 10
WINPOS   = 1
FILTER   = no
TITLE    = 32/3/ GFS ^ ~ TMPC DWPC #
PANEL    = 0
CLEAR    = yes
TEXT     = 1
DEVICE   = xw
OUTPUT   =  
THTALN   = 2/2
THTELN   = 23/2
MIXRLN   = 19/10
GEMPAK-GDPROF>r

image

Now re-run to overlay dewpoint temperature using CLEAR = n on the same graphics device:

GFUNC    = dwpc
LINE     = 3//3
CLEAR    = n
GEMPAK-GDPROF>r

image

Exercise #22 (Upper-Air Sounding)

Make note that because GDCROSS uses GFUNC (and not GDPFUN) we can not plot both temperature and dewpoint at the same time, making use of CLEAR = n overlaying.

For SNPROF, we can plot both profiles simulataneously.

Draw a Skew-T, Log-P for the same station (iad) using SNPROF. Again, start with GPCOLOR to set the background to white:

COLORS   = 101=255:255:255
DEVICE   = xw
GEMPAK-GPCOLOR>

Now run SNPROF with sounding parameters tmpc;dwpc matched by line style 2;3//2:

SNFILE   = uair
DATTIM   = 1200
AREA     = @iad
SNPARM   = tmpc;dwpc
LINE     = 2;3//2
PTYPE    = skewt
VCOORD   = pres
STNDEX   =  
STNCOL   =  
WIND     = bm32
WINPOS   = 1
MARKER   =  
BORDER   = 32
TITLE    = 32/3/ IAD SKEW-T/LOG-P 1200 UTC
DEVICE   = xw
YAXIS    = 1000/100/100/;1
XAXIS    = -40/40/10
FILTER   = no
CLEAR    = n
PANEL    = 0
TEXT     = 1
THTALN   = 2/2
THTELN   = 23/2
MIXRLN   = 19/10
GEMPAK-SNPROF>r

image

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