Wind Barbs

barb_1.ncl: Demonstrates a default wind barb plot.

vcGlyphStyle = "WindBarb" turns on wind barbs.

In this example, vcMinDistanceF is used to control the density of the wind barbs. The default density blacks out the entire plot. The length of the barbs is controlled by vcRefMagnitudeF and vcRefLengthF

barb_2.ncl: Wind barbs colored by a scalar field.

vcMonoWindBarbColor will color the wind barbs by the scalar field rather than plot them on top of the scalar field.

gsn_csm_vector_scalar_map_ce is the plot interface that draws either vector quantities on a scalar field, or colors those quantities by the scalar field.

barb_3.ncl: A regional plot that demonstrates more wind barb controls.

vcRefAnnoOn turns off the reference wind barb since by nature it is not needed.
vcWindBarbTickLengthF controls the length of the wind barb ticks. Default is 0.3.
vcWindBarbTickSpacingF controls the distance between the wind barb ticks. Default is 0.125.

Because this is a non-global plot, we must set gsnAddCyclic to False

mpDataBaseVersion allows the user to select the coastline data base. See the coastline example page for more details.

barb_4.ncl: Demonstrates how to produce a wind profile plot. gsn_csm_vector_scalar is used to draw the wind profile, and then the plot is overlaid on a logLin plot. The overlay is done for two reasons. First, the logLin plot allows the expansion of the range of the X and Y axis beyond that of the X/Y data coordinates. This allows the entire wind barb field to be seen. Second, the logLin plot allows the Y-axis to be changed from irregular to linear. (Optionally, this also allows the Y-axis to be set to logarithmic by setting trYLog = True, although the Y-axis labels will likely need to be manually set and the Y-axis cannot go < 0.)

Note that any plot object can be overlaid on a logLin plot to make the Y-axis linear or logarithmic. (You would not want to do this when working with certain plot types, a map plot for instance.)