Introduction
A fundamental concept in Metview is the View. A View specifies the following definitions in a Metview plot:
- type of visualisation (e.g. geographical map, cross section, vertical profile)
- parameters specific to that plot type (e.g. geographical area, cross section line, min/max axes values)
- plot position within the page (several plots can share a page)
- how to overlay different data in the same plot (e.g. icon drop rules, data overlay control)
- plot decoration (e.g. draw a frame around the plot)
Without a View specification, Metview would not plot anything. If you do not provide a View, then Metview will use a sensible default View.
(add a picture with 4 views and highlighting the above definitions)
The current Metview version provides 8 Views specifications:
| Name | Usage (Used for plotting or Plotting specification for) |
|---|---|
| Geographical View | geographic-based data plots |
| Cartesian View | plots that are not to be displayed on a map |
| Cross Section View | cross section plots |
| Vertical Profile View | vertical profile plots |
| Average View | average (zonal or meridional) cross-section plots |
| Annotation View | text boxes |
| Hovmøller View | Hovmøller diagram plots |
| Thermo View | thermodynamic diagram plots |
The Geographical View
This is the default View for plotting geographic-based data.
We will first use a Geographical View icon to save a geographical area that we can reuse.
Create a new Geographical View icon. Take this opportunity to explore the different ways to find it in the Create new icon dialog. First, note that there are three ways to find icons: Recent, Types and Filter. From the Filter mode, type geo to start the search - this should be enough to find Geographical View. Now try the Types mode, and set Type to Views. This shows all the available View icons. The Recent mode gives access to the last few icon types you have created.
Whichever method you choose, create a new Geographical View icon and rename it to the name of a country/region of your choice. Edit the icon, change the Map Projection to Polar Stereographic, the Map Area Definition to Corners and click on the Geography Tool button next to the Area parameter (shown in the picture above).