[IDV #ZIL-902685]: Plotting Winds

Greetings Stephen,

Sure, that will work. But, as an extra bonus, NCDC NOMADS offers
a THREDDS Data Server for access to their data, which you can use/browse
directly from the IDV rather than downloading entire grids. From the
Data Choosers tab on the Dashboard, select "General -> Catalogs" and
enter this URL for the catalog:

http://nomads.ncdc.noaa.gov/thredds/catalog.xml

Cheers!

Sean

> Sean,
> I am primarily interested in using this for viewing archived data from
> NCDC. Can I just use the following steps for plotting the winds for NAM
> data that I have downloaded. I don't have access to the workstation with
> IDV at the moment but if I just pick the file for my data source seems like
> it should work?
> Thanks,
> Stephen
> 
> address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> > Greetings Stephen,
> >
> > Ok, let's do that for model output.
> >
> > First, there are two windows in the IDV - the Dashboard (it has
> > tabs for Data Choosers, Field Selector, Displays), and the second
> > is the main map display. Please try the following:
> >
> > 1) Go to the Dashboard and click on the "Data Choosers" tab.
> >
> > 2) On the left-hand side of the Dashboard, click General->Catalogs.
> >
> > 3) In the middle of the Dashboard window, you should see several
> > enteries under "IDV catalog". Click the little sideways triangle
> > and open up "Unidata IDD Model Data" -> "UCAR (motherlode)" ->
> > "Global Forecast System Model" -> "NCEP GFS CONUS 80 km" and
> > select "Latest NCEP GFS CONUS 80 km". This will get you the most
> > recent run of the GFS from NCEP. Once you have "Latest NCEP GFS
> > CONUS 80 km" selected, click "Add Source" at the bottom of the
> > Dashboard.
> >
> > 4) The Dashboard will automatically take you to the Field Selector
> > tab - this is where you can choose what variables / kinds of
> > displays you'd like to create. First, select the variable you'd
> > like to plot. For winds, look under the "Fields" panel, and click
> > "3D grid" -> "Derived" -> "Flow Vectors (from u_wind & v_wind)"
> >
> > 5) Now, to the right of the "Fields" panel, select "Flow Displays" ->
> > "Wind Barb Plan View".
> >
> > 6) The data will be pull across the network, and this can sometimes be
> > slow (especially if the grids are big). Let's select just the first three
> > or so time steps. Below the "Displays" panel, click on the "Times" tab,
> > click on the dropdown box and select "Use Selected", and then select
> > the first time step, hold the shift key, and select the range of times
> > you'd like to display.
> >
> > 7) At the bottom of the Dashboard window, click "Create Display"
> >
> > This will cause the main map view window to appear and display a barb
> > plot of winds at 1000 mb. If you look on the right side of the window,
> > you will see the Legend - click "flowvectors - ..."to access the display
> > controls (this takes you back to the dashboard).
> >
> > 8) The controls for the barb display are pretty simple. The display
> > is pretty cluttered when all grid points are plotted, so it's a good
> > idea to set the "Skip: XY:" value to something like 2 or 3. Also, you
> > wanted 200 mb, so set the "Levels" dropdown box to 200.
> >
> > Now, to get the speeds on there (if you don't like reading those from
> > the barbs), return to the Dashboard and click on the Field Selector tab,
> > and look under "3D grid" -> Derived -> Speed (from u_wind & v_wind). For
> > the Display, select "Color-Filled Contour Plan View", select the times you
> > want to display, and click "Create Display". Again, this will plot the wind
> > speeds at 1000mb - you will need to go back to the Dashboard and, under the
> > Displays tab, select the "windspeed -..." display on the left side of the
> > window, and set the "Levels" dropdown box to 200.
> >
> > That should get you started :-)
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Sean
> >
> >
> > > I just want to plot say barbs and speeds to show jets.
> > > Yes I am going to go through the tutorial.
> > > Thanks,
> > > Stephen
> > >
> > > address@hidden> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Greetings Stephen,
> > > >
> > > > Are you wanting to plot wind barbs or vectors, or just wind speed?
> > Also,
> > > > are you wanting to look at model output or RAOB data?
> > > >
> > > > Also, if you are somewhat new to the IDV, you may find the tutorial
> > > > useful (it's what we cover in our training workshop):
> > > >
> > > > https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/idv/docs/workshop/
> > > >
> > > > Cheers!
> > > >
> > > > Sean
> > > >
> > > > > Full Name: Stephen Keebler
> > > > > Email Address: address@hidden
> > > > > Organization: The National Weather Service
> > > > > Package Version:
> > > > > Operating System:
> > > > > Hardware:
> > > > > Description of problem: I am taking this step by step. How do I plot
> > > > total winds say at 200mb?
> > > > > Thanks,
> > > > > Stephen
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Ticket Details
> > > > ===================
> > > > Ticket ID: ZIL-902685
> > > > Department: Support IDV
> > > > Priority: Normal
> > > > Status: Open
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > *Stephen Keebler*
> > > *Winter Weather Program Leader*
> > > *Backup Program Leader*
> > > *EEO Program Leader*
> > > *Outreach Team*
> > > *Wilmington North Carolina*
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > Ticket Details
> > ===================
> > Ticket ID: ZIL-902685
> > Department: Support IDV
> > Priority: Normal
> > Status: Open
> >
> >
> 
> 
> --
> *Stephen Keebler*
> *Winter Weather Program Leader*
> *Backup Program Leader*
> *EEO Program Leader*
> *Outreach Team*
> *Wilmington North Carolina*
> 
> 


Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: ZIL-902685
Department: Support IDV
Priority: Normal
Status: Open