This is the visual definition icon responsible for specifying how gridded data is displayed. It controls features such as isolines, shading, highs & lows, and grid value plotting.
The macro language equivalent is mcont()
.
The Contouring Editor
Most of the parameters in this editor come directly from Magics, and are documented on the contour reference page. Parameters not listed there are as follows:
Grib Interpolation Regular Resolution
Sets the plotting resolution, in degrees, of GRIB fields encoded in space_view projection. The default is 0.1.
Grib Scaling of Retrieved Fields
Toggles the scaling of the retrieved fields On / Off. "Retrieved fields" are considered to be fields that have been retrieved from MARS or read from disk but are not the result of a Metview computation. They are expected to be in SI units. If this parameter is On, MAGICS will perform a unit conversion (scaling) on the retrieved fields that it plots, converting these from SI units to units of customary meteorological usage - e.g. Pressure from Pa to hPa/mb, Temperature from K to °C.
Grib Scaling of Derived Fields
Toggles the scaling of the derived fields On / Off. "Derived fields" are considered to be any field that Metview (or command-line MARS computations) has produced as the result of a calculation. If the field you derive is in SI units, set this parameter to On to convert to meteorological style units. E.g. :
- If you retrieve two temperature fields, they will be plotted in °C if this setting is On, otherwise they will be in K. If you derive a mean temperature from them, it will be plotted in K if you do not scale the derived field.
- Precipitation fields are cumulative fields stored in m but plotted in mm - if you subtract two consecutive ones to obtain the precipitation for the time step between them, you will plot a field in m if you do not scale the derived field.