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Introduction

Metview 4.4 introduces new icons for Cross Section Data, Average Data, Vertical Profile Data, Hovmoeller Data, Cross Section View, Average View, Vertical Profile View and Hovmoeller View. Their functionality remain largely the same, but the concepts have been cleaned up, with a clearer separation between the responsibilities of the Data icons and the View icons. For example, specifying that the result should be plotted with a logarithmic axis should not be part of the Data icons, but should instead be the sole responsibility of the View icons, as it is a purely visual characteristic. Additionally, some parameters were not generic enough - for example, the Top Pressure parameter can also be used when the data are in model levels, and has therefore now been renamed to Top Level.

In order to obtain the new icons, you should delete the old ones from your Modules (Data) and Views drawers, then update the drawers. If you have problems running the new icons, you may have to go into your System/Defaults folder and delete the icons with the same names there, as these may have incompatible parameters. This is a side-effect of keeping the same names for these icons.

Migrating from Metview 3 is a little different to migrating from Metview 4.3, so both cases are treated separately here.

Migrating from Metview 3 to Metview 4.4

Cross Section Data

  • Existing icons will continue to work, but with the following limitations:

    • They will appear in faded colours in the user interface
    • Pressure Level Axis will be ignored; Linear will be used. The Cross Section View can be used to change this, and it could be advisable to set Interpolate Values to No in order to get the best representation of the data
    • Top Pressure and Bottom Pressure will be ignored; Metview will generate its result using the whole data range. The Cross Section View can be used to change this
  • To migrate to the new icon:
    • To control the type (linear/log) or the range of the vertical axis, the use the Cross Section View
    • Interpolate Values has a new default value of No (previously it was Yes). This provides a default result which is more closely based on the input data. If set to Yes, the plotting of the upper atmosphere plotting on a logarithmic vertical scale could show some artefacts from the interpolation
    • The macro function name has changed from cross_sect() to mcross_sect()

Average Data

  • What is true for Cross Section Data is also true for Average Data, except:

    • The Average Section View icon is used to control the visualisation aspects
    • The macro function name has changed from xs_average() to mxs_average()

Vertical Profile Data

  • What is true for Cross Section Data is also true for Vertical Profile Data, except:

    • The Vertical Profile View icon is used to control the visualisation aspects
    • The macro function name has changed from vert_prof() to mvert_prof()

Hovmoeller Data

  • What is true for Cross Section Data is also true for Hovmoeller Data, except:

    • Axis definitions are ignored, as these belong in the View icon

    • The Hovmoeller View icon is used to control the visualisation aspects
    • The macro function names have changed from hovmoeller_line() to mhovmoeller_line(), hovmoeller_area() to mhovmoeller_area(), hovmoeller_expand() to mhovmoeller_expand(), and from hovmoeller_height() to mhovmoeller_vertical().

Cross Section View

  • Existing icons will continue to work as they currently do

  • The new icon introduces the ability to select between nearest gridpoint and interpolated point
  • The new icon introduces the ability to supply custom axis definitions
  • To migrate to the new icon:
    • Parameter Pressure Level Axis has been replaced by Vertical Scaling
    • Interpolate Values has a new default value of No (previously it was Yes).
    • Setting Vertical Scaling to Log is now a purely visual change and no longer affects the actual values computed; this fact is compensated for by disabling Interpolate Values by default
    • Parameters Top Pressure and Bottom Pressure have been replaced by Top Level and Bottom Level
    • The macro function name has changed from xsectview() to mxsectview()

Average View

  • What is true for Cross Section View is also true for Average View, except:
    •  The macro function name has changed from averageview() to maverageview()

Vertical Profile View

  • What is true for Cross Section View is also true for Vertical Profile View, except:
    • The macro function name has changed from vertprofview() to mvertprofview()
    • it gains a new parameter for setting the limits of the x-axis

Hovmoeller View

  • What is true for Cross Section View is also true for Vertical Profile View, except:
    • The new View icon contains all that is needed to generate a Hovmoeller plot; this was not true previously
       
    • The macro function name has changed from mhovmoellerview() to mhovmoellerview()

Migrating from Metview 4.3 to Metview 4.4

Cross Section Data

  • See the notes under Migrating from Metview 3 to Metview 4.4.

Average Data

  • See the notes under Migrating from Metview 3 to Metview 4.4.

Vertical Profile Data

  • See the notes under Migrating from Metview 3 to Metview 4.4.

 

Hovmoeller Data

  • There should be no difference between Metview 4.3 and 4.4 in this regard

Cross Section View

  • Icons from Metview 4.3 will not be visible in the user interface. It is hoped that not many users will have used this view icon in Metview 4.3, as it was not fully implemented, and did not work in batch mode
  • The new icon introduces the ability to select between nearest gridpoint and interpolated point
  • The new icon introduces the ability to supply custom axis definitions
  • The macro command remains the same, mxsectview(), but  may fail if it uses the old parameter names. It is recommended to update any macros which use this function:
    • change pressure_level_axis to vertical_scaling
    • change top_pressure to top_level and bottom_pressure to bottom_level

Average View

  • What is true for Cross Section View is also true for Average View, except:
    • The macro command remains the same, maverageview()

Vertical Profile View

  • What is true for Cross Section View is also true for Vertical Profile View, except:
    • The macro command remains the same, mvertprofview()
    • it gains a new parameter for setting the limits of the x-axis

Hovmoeller View

  • The Hovmoeller View was not present in Metview 4.3, but is now available in version 4.4.