Using the Metview macros
File name
Description
plot_raw_IC.mv : Metview macro to visualize the raw initial conditions for 2 experiments and the difference between them
plot_forecastrun.mv : Metview macro to visualize the results of forecast experiments
plot_ERAI_ERA5.mv : Metview macro to visualize the ERA-Interim or ERA5 data
raw_IC_dialog : Metview dialogue box (in macro language) to
plot_raw_IC.mv
forecastrun_dialog : Metview dialogue box (in macro language)
to plot_forecastrun.mv
ERAI_ERA5_dialog : Metview dialogue box (in macro language)
to plot_ERAI_ERA5.mv
help_plot_raw_IC : help file
to
plot_raw_IC.mv
help_plot_forecastrun :
help file
to
plot_forecastrun.mv
help_plot_ERAI_ERA5 :
help file
to
plot_ERAI_ERA5.mv
scr_run_macros : shell script to execute the Metview macros
The visualisation can be done by the Metview macros (*.mv files) in the ways: (1) interactively using a dialogue box or (2) in batch mode.
(1) Interactive dialogue box
With right click on the macro and then selecting the
Execute
option from the menu, the settings can be seen in a dialogue box:
(2) Batch mode
In batch mode the macro can be executed following the next syntax:
% metview -b macro option1 option2 option3 ...
where macro is the macro to be run (plot_raw_IC.mv, plot_forecastrun.mv or plot_ERAI_ERA5.mv); option1, option2 etc. are the settings listed above. A detailed help together with some useful examples is provided with simple execution of the macro:
% metview -b macro
The shell script scr_run_macros executes the macros from the UNIX/Linux shell and it can be tailored for the own needs.
External functions and macros
The prepared Metview macros use some external functions, macros and colour definitions which are placed in the definitions directory.
File name
Description
build_layout_2plus1 : layout definition with 2 left panels and 1 right panel
build_layout_single : layout definition a single panel
titlemain : title style for the main plot
titlemain_2L : 2-line title style for the main plot
titlepanels : title style for the individual panels
legend_main : legend definition for a single page
legend_shade : legend definition for left panels
legend_diff : legend definition for right panel (for the difference field)
base_visdef : colour definitions for the different variables
diff_range : dynamic colour definitions for the difference fields
To reach these functions and colour definitions, the path of the definitions directory has to be added to the METVIEW_MACRO_PATH (e.g., in .bashrc).
Please note that there are 2 include statements in the plot_raw_IC.mv, 1 and 1 in the plot_forecastrun.mv and the plot_ERAI_ERA5.mv macros, taking the two colour definitions (base_visdef and diff_range) from this directory. The path of the definitions directory has to be set in the downloaded macros according to the local working tree (it is necessary because using dynamic path with include is not possible in the macro language).
Input data
The input data are requested with the following content, format and name convention:
- Macro plot_raw_IC.mv expects the raw ICM* files as input: ICMCL${expID}INIT, ICMGG${expID}INIT, ICMGG${expID}INIUA, ICMSH${expID}INIT, where expID is the 4-digit experiment ID.
- Macros plot_forecastrun.mv and plot_ERAI_ERA5.mv expect grib files as input with the following file names: ${variable}_${date}.grib, where variable can be t2, mslp, p, gust, t850, q700, z500, u250, u100; date is day in format yyyymmdd.
Output figures
All the macros produce figures in single-page .ps files (e.g. Figure 1) with the following file names:
- plot_raw_IC.mv: ${variable}_${level}_ERAI-ERA5_${date}+${timestep}.ps, where
variable can be stl2, lnsp, z, t, cc, u, q;
level can be 0 (in case of surface variables) or from 1 to 91;
date is day in format yyyymmdd;
timestep is forecast lead time in hours, e.g., 0, 3, 6 etc. - plot_forecastrun.mv: ${variable}_${level}_${expID}_${date}+${timestep}.ps, where
variable can be t2, mslp, p, gust, t, q, z, u;
level can be 0 (in case of surface variables) or 850, 700, 500, 250, 100;
expID is the 4-digit experiment ID;
date is day in format yyyymmdd;
timestep is forecast lead time in hours in format hh, e.g., 00, 03, 06 etc. - plot_ERAI_ERA5.mv: ${variable}_${level}_${reference}_${date}${time}.ps, where
variable can be t2, mslp, p, gust, t, q, z, u;
level can be 0 (in case of surface variables) or 850, 700, 500, 250, 100;
reference can be ERAI or ERA5;
date is day in format yyyymmdd;
time is hour in format (h)h, e.g., 0, 3, 6, 9, 12 etc.
Running the Metview macros results in a large number of figures. To have an overview on them, a catalogue can be prepared which contains all relevant plots for the selected variable and a given investigation aspect in a concise format (click below and see Figure 2 for illustration). To quickly generate this kind of album, the Macro functionality of the Microsoft Office programme can be used.
Figure 1: Exemplary output figure (here: 3-hourly 10-meter wind gust at 00 UTC on 5 December 2015 from the T255L91 OpenIFS forecasts initialized from ERA-Interim at 00 UTC on 4 December 2015). |