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The visualization package contains the following folders and file:

Content of the visualization package

Folder or file      Description

macros          : Metview visualization macros
definitions     : place of some external functions and macros used by the macros
input           : input directory for the input files (downloaded and prepared based on the earlier instructions)
figs            : output directory for the figures
README          : description about the content of the visualization package
On this page...

Using the Metview macros

The available 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:

experiment 1 in raw_IC_dialog: the 4-digit ID number of T255L91 run with ERA5 initial conditions;

experiment 2 in raw_IC_dialog: the 4-digit ID number of T255L91 run with ERA-Interim initial conditions (considered as reference run);

experiment in forecastrun_dialog: the 4-digit ID number of forecast experiment;

reference in ERAI_ERA5_dialog: ERA-Interim/ei or ERA5/ea/e5;

surface parameters in raw_IC_dialog: 3 variables are available for visualisation, soil level temperature 2, surface pressure, (model) orography;

model level parameters in raw_IC_dialog: 4 variables are available for visualisation, temperature, wind, specific humidity, cloud cover;

model levels for model level variables: from 1 (uppest) to 91 (lowest);

surface parameters in forecastrun_dialog and ERAI_ERA5_dialog: 4 variables are available, 2-meter temperature, mean sea level pressure, precipitation, 10-meter wind gust;

pressure level parameters in forecastrun_dialog and ERAI_ERA5_dialog: 5 variables are available, temperature at 850 hPa, geopotential at 500 hPa, wind at 250 and 100 hPa, relative humidity at 700 hPa;

pressure levels for pressure level variables: 850, 700, 500, 250, 100 hPa;

Multiple variables (both surface and model/pressure level ones) can be selected at the same time. In case of choosing any model or pressure level parameters, selecting also (at least) one model or pressure level should not be forgotten (multiple options are possible also here).

Please note that to visualise different atmospheric variables on different levels (e.g., temperature at 850 hPa and humidity at 700 hPa), the macro has to be run separately with the two settings.

date in raw_IC_dialog: date of experiment in format yyyymmdd;

startdate in forecastrun_dialog: starting date of the forecast in format yyyymmdd;

verification date in ERAI_ERA5_dialog: verification date in format yyyymmdd;

area can be selected with providing corners of a rectangle (the default is Europe with 25/-35/75/50 for S/W/N/E, respectively) and also using the mouse. Note that colour settings are prepared only for the default area, colours for any further region have to be fit manually;

input directory: location of the input files;

figure directory: location of the output figures.

(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.

The external functions located in 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 expects 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.
  • Macro plot_ERAI_ERA5.mv expects grib files as input with the following file names: ${referenceID}_${variable}_${period}.grib, where
    referenceID is ei for ERA-Interim and ea for ERA5;
    variable can be t2, mslp, p, gust, t850, q700, z500, u250, u100;
    period is the investigated time period in format of yyyymmdd-yyyymmdd (e.g., 20151201-20151206 for Desmond).


Output figures

All the macros produce figures in single-page .ps files (see 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).

  1. Convert the .ps files into .png files (images with 120 DPI are sharp enough with limited file size): convert -density 120 psfile pngfile
  2. Choose a variable (e.g., T850) and open one of the .docx files in the figs/docs directory (initial_condition_t850_table.docx). Delete all figures from the table, but keep the table itself as it is.
  3. Click on the View macros menu item in Macros menu point on View tab (in MS Office 2013) and edit the macro aainsertpicsOIFS_initialconditions. The macro source code can be seen in the opening window. The directory paths and file names can be replaced here to paths and file names valid in the local environment. This replacement can be done automatically with CTRL+H. Afterwards the macro has to be saved.
  4. Then return to the the main document, position the cursor into the cell of the first picture and run the macro (with clicking on the View macros menu item in Macros menu point on View tab and running the macro aainsertpicsOIFS_initialconditions).
  5. Save the document at the end of the macro run. The same can be repeated for all the variables.

To prepare similar document for comparison of impact of resolution and startdate, the corresponding *resolution.docx, *startdate.docx files and aainsertpicsOIFS_resolutions, aainsertpicsOIFS_startdates macros have to be used.

There are separate macros for precipitation figures as in this case 24-hour amount is evaluated instead of precipitation between 2 time steps (see macros aainsertprecpics*).

Figure 2: Illustration of the catalogue constructed from the output figures (here: 3-hourly 10-meter wind gust from ERA-Interim and ERA5 re-analyses and the T255L91 OpenIFS forecasts initialized from ERA-Interim on different dates).

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