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Let’s customise the coastline plotting attributes.
First, create a new Coastlines icon. You can right-click within the Metview desktop to obtain a context menu from where the option Create new icon is available (shortcut: CTRL-N).
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Your Coastlines icon can be dragged into any plot, and later we’ll see how to store useful icons so that they can be easily accessed from anywhere.
Changing the Map Projection and Storing the Area
Metview's default map projection is Cylindrical. However, meteorologists often use other projections when plotting data.
Create a new Geographic View icon and rename it to polar_europe by clicking on its name and editing the text. Edit the icon and change the following parameter:
| Map Projection | Polar Stereographic |
Save the changes and visualise the icon. Drop the GRIB data icon into the Display Window to see it on the new map. It is also possible to visualise the GRIB icon and then drop the Geographic View icon into the plot to achieve the same effect. Have a look at some of the other projections on offer, then go back to polar stereographic. Now we want to set the area used in the view. Although we can interactively zoom into smaller areas in the Display Window, we now want to store a particular area so that we can use exactly the same one again and again.Set the Map Area Definition to Corners and click on the Geography Tool button next to the Area parameter (shown in the picture above).
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This tool helps you define a region.
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Use the Zoom tools to enlarge the European area and use the Area tool to select a region over Europe. Click Ok to save your selection - your choices will now be updated in the Geographic View editor. Click Apply in the Geographical View editor to save everything. Plot your data in this view to confirm that the area and projection are as desired.
Modifying Layers
Now look at the Layers tab again. Drag the shaded Coastlines layer so that it is above the t1000.grb layer – a quick way to mask out the sea points! Imagine looking down through the layers from the top to the bottom in order to understand how they work. You can also select the Coastlines layer and change its transparency value. You can also toggle layers on and off using the checkboxes next to them. Note that these adjustments are not carried through to the various export image formats (see later).
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