This exercise shows how to retrieve GRIB data from MARS, examine its structure, compute the differences between fields and visualise the data in various ways. Retrieving the analysis dataTo perform a MARS retrieval in Metview, click the Data Access tab at the bottom right-click on an empty area of the Metview desktop to open it, and drag the Mars Retrieval icon onto your Metview desktop; and select Create New Icon from the context menu. Select Mars Retrieval and hit Return or click OK. this will create a copy of the icon for you to customise. Rename the new icon to temperature_analysis by clicking on its name. Edit your icon (right-click & edit, see Figure 2) and set the following parameters: | Param | T | Note: sets the desired meteorological parameter to Temperature | | Date | -3 | Note: sets the analysis base time to 3 days ago | | Grid | 1.0/1.0 | Note: interpolates the result onto a 1.0-degree grid |
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You must press the Return key after typing each value. To save these settings, click the Save button at the bottom-left of the icon editor. Inspecting the analysis dataPerform the data retrieval by choosing execute from the icon's context menu. The icon name should turn orange whilst the retrieval takes place, then green to indicate success (if the name turns red, then the retrieval failed and you should look in the output log, available from the output Log entry in the context menu). The data is now cached locally. To see what was retrieved, right-click examine the icon. This brings up Metview's GRIB Examiner tool (Figure 3). Here we can see that we retrieved six vertical levels of data; this is as expected if we look at the Levelist parameter in the icon editor. | Info |
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| The GRIB Examiner allows in-depth examination of GRIB files with many ways to customise the information. We will not cover these facilities in this introduction. |
Now visualise the data, again using the icon's context menu. You will see a map plot with the default contouring style in the Display Window (Figure 4). The zoom controls in the toolbar give control over the area selection. To plot the data with shaded colours, go to the Visual Definitions drawer (if this drawer is not visible, you may have to either expand your Metview desktop window to the right, or else click on the dots which appear to the right of the last visible drawer). Drop the Contouring icon onto your Metview desktop, rename create another new icon - this time select the Contouring icon. Rename it shade and edit it, providing these parameters: | Legend | On | | | Contour Shade | On | | | Contour Shade Method | Area Fill | | | Contour Shade Max Level Colour | Red | Note: to select a colour, click the small triangle next to the parameter name to reveal the colour selection dialog | | Contour Shade Min Level Colour | Blue | | | Contour Shade Colour Direction | Clockwise | |
Save the icon settings (Save) and drop this into the Display Window (re-visualise the data if you have closed the Display Window). The result should resemble Figure 5. Metview's Contouring icon provides much flexibility in choosing how to display gridded fields; this tutorial uses only simple colour schemes. The fields can be visualised using different views. These can be defined by a set of icons such as Geographical View and Cross Section View. In the solutions folder are 2 pre-prepared view icons for you to try. Visualise the polar_stereo_europe icon and drop your temperature_analysis icon into the resulting Display Window. If you edit this view icon, you will see how to define a geographical view. Now close the Display Window and visualise your data in the same way with the the cross_section_example view. This icon defines a geographical line along which a cross section of the data is computed (remember that the data consists of a number of vertical levels). You can also drop your shade icon into the plot (Figure 6). | Info |
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| The Display Window provides a number of facilities for further inspection of the data (e.g. magnifier, point values, histogram) , not covered here. |
Retrieving the forecast dataCreate a copy of your temperature_analysis icon (right-click, duplicate Duplicate) and rename the copy to temperature_forecast. Edit this icon and set the following parameters: | Type | FC | | Param | T | | Date | -5 | | Step | 48 | | Grid | 1.0/1.0 |
The analysis data was valid for 3 days ago; this new icon retrieves a 48-hour forecast data generated 5 days ago, so it is also valid for 3 days ago. You don't need to separately execute and visualise the icon - if you visualise it, the data will automatically be retrieved first. The plot title will verify that this data is valid for the same date and time as the analysis data. It also contains the same set of vertical levels. Compute the forecast-analysis differenceCreate a new Simple Formula icon by taking a copy from the Macros icon drawer. Rename the copy it to fc_an_diff. Edit the icon, ensure that the first tab FORMULA option is selected (F+G) and that the operator is minus ( - ). Drop your temperature_forecast icon into the Parameter 1 box, and drop temperature_analysis into the Parameter 2 box. Save the icon and visualise it. The difference will be computed and the result plotted. Note that all 6 fields in each data icon are used in the computation - the result is a set of 6 fields. The solutions folder contains two Contouring icons which can be used to show the differences: select both pos_shade and neg_shade with the mouse and drop them both together into the Display Window (see Figure 7). It is also possible to drop them one at a time, but they do not accumulate - one will replace the other. Automating the whole procedureEnsure that the difference fieldset is visualised with the contouring applied. To generate a Metview Macro script from this plot, click the Generate Macro button (also available from the File menu). A new Macro script will be generated - have a look at it to confirm that it contains code to retrieve all the data, compute the difference and plot the result. Run the macro to obtain the plot, either by using the Run button from the Macro Editor, or by selecting visualise from the icon's context menu). By default, the macro is written so that it will produce an interactive plot window; it will generate a PostScript file if it is run with the execute command, or if it is run from the command line: metview -b <macro-name>
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| Metview Macro is a rich, powerful scripting language designed for the high-level manipulation and plotting of meteorological data. For examples of the available functions, see List of Operators and Functions. The code generated automatically above is intended as a starting point only - usually at least some editing will be required in order to make the code more streamlined for your needs. |
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