ecCharts is a very flexible tool which allows authorised users to explore and create custom and interactive forecast charts. 

ecCharts is restricted access. Find out more about accessing ECMWF products and services.

About ecCharts

ecCharts is a web based service that you can use to explore ECMWF graphical forecast products.

All products are produced on-demand. This means that each product is recreated on-the-fly when you change the view or projection, forecast validity time or base time, or change the layers that are used.

To improve performance, if the exact product has been viewed before, then it will be cached on our side. This means that some products may appear very quickly but some products may take time as they are being created.

ecCharts concepts

Logging in to ecCharts

You must be logged in to use the service and this means you need to be registered.

Find out how to arrange access to ecCharts.

If you are not logged in, you will see a link to 'Log in' at the top right of the page.

ecCharts user interface overview

The ecCharts menu bar

The menu bar gives access to the main menu options: Products, Projections, Views, Save, Data availability.

Products

This allows you to select which product to view, such as cloud cover or total precipitation.

Under Products you will see a thumbnail list of your products. Click on a product and it will appear in place of the existing map.

You can add more products to your list by clicking on + More Products....

You can delete a product from your list, and edit and share a product by hovering over the thumbnail.

Projections

This is where you choose the part of the world and the map projection you want to look at.

A thumbnail list of your projections/regions. Click on a projection/view to change the current map to that view.

By default you will have a limited number of projections available. You can add more projections to your list by clicking on + More Projections ....

Views

The views menu allows you to show/hide a range of windows providing additional information, such as the chart legend and cities window.

Save

You can save your current product and projection, including layer visibility, style, and stacking order. You will be asked to provide a name, description, and keywords to help you find it again.

Data availability

Shows a table of data availability based on forecast and validity time which can be used to change the base time and validity in one step.

The x-axis is forecast validity time and the y-axis is forecast base time.

The red box indicates the base time (BT) and validity time (VT) of the currently selected chart.  You can click on the other green boxes to change the validity time (VT) and base time (BT) of the current map.

Note that the time navigator at the bottom of the page changes to reflect any click within the 'Data availability' matrix.

The ecCharts tool bar

The tool bar has controls to clear/reset map, undo/redo, zoom in/out and select a map mode

Map navigation 

By default you will be in pan mode where you can click, hold and drag to show a different location. In this mode, you can also use the zoom-in and zoom-out buttons to focus in more or less detail for the given view/projection. You can also use the back/forward buttons to navigate in your history.

There are three map modes: pan mode, rectangle-zoom and probe-tool.

Pan 

Click with the left-mouse button on a point on the map, hold and drag the map to navigate and change geographical view. Use the zoom-in and zoom-out buttons to focus in more or less detail on the map. If you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, it is possible to use this to zoom-in and zoom-out.

Rectangle zoom 

Use your mouse-left-button to select a point, hold the mouse and drag across the map to select an area. When you release the mouse button, the view will change to the selected area. Note that the area is fixed to the proportions of your browser window.

Probe

Clicking on a point on the map will set the location of the probe point. you will see the latitude and longitude of your point at the bottom right of the screen. You can then display information about the probe point location using views from the menu bar and selecting probe window.

The layer menu

The layer menu controls the layers that are part of the current product map view and to alter the way individual layers are displayed (such as contour intervals, colours etc.).

The layer menu's basic uses are:

  • to add layers to the existing map - use add layers at the top right,
  • to toggle visibility of the layers in the existing map (by ticking and unticking the toggles on the left),
  • to change the layer order by dragging the layers in the list (by dragging the small up-down-arrow or the thumbnail) and
  • to remove layers (click on the waste-basket icon on the right-hand-side). 

Changing layer styles

Click on the layer edit icon of a particular layer. You will be presented with a thumbnail of the current style and a drop down with a selection of other contour/styles that are available. Select one of these styles, then click apply.

Some layers can be modified by changing processing that applies to the layer. Examples of this include changing the accumulation interval in a precipitation field, changing the probabiltity threshold or changing the calculation operator from greater-than a threshold to less-than a threshold. To do this click on the layer edit icon of a particular layer. You will be presented with a number of parameters/operators that you can change. Simply change the parameter/operator and click on apply.

Time navigator

Along the bottom of the screen you have a time navigator.

The time navigator provides buttons to select specific times and change the base time (BT) (i.e., the time of the analysis that the forecast was produced from).

There is also an animate button on the far right of the time navigator and step-back/step-forward buttons on the far left of the time navigator. It is also possible to change the forecast base time to an earlier one using the drop down box. If you are not using the very latest base-time then you will see a message box.

Help

The Contact menu contains links to documentation and "Report issue..." link which can be used to report issues back to ECMWF directly from the interface.

Keyboard and mouse shortcuts

A number of keyboard shortcuts are implemented in the user interface:

Right arrownext time step
Left arrowprevious time step
Homefirst time step
Endlast time step
Up arrownext cycle (more recent base time)
Down arrowprevious cycle (older base time)
4open projection catalogue
5open product catalogue
6open layer catalogue
<slow down rate of animation
>speed up rate of animation

If these shortcuts do not work, please ensure that the application has the keyboard focus by clicking anywhere in the web page first.

Additionally if you have a scroll mouse, then you can use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out of the map.