Overlay Plots

Overlay plots are different plots (like vectors and contours) that are drawn on top of each other, and possibly on top of a map.

There are many different ways that one can create overlay plots:

Use the overlay procedure (this is the best method)
Use the gsn_csm_contour_map_overlay plotting function (this method is not usually recommended)
Manually overlay plots by drawing each plot and not advancing the frame
Use NhlAddData to add a line, a legend, or other graphical object to an existing plot.
If plotting WRF data, you can alternatvely use the wrf_overlays or wrf_map_overlays plotting functions

There are numerous examples of overlay plots available across many different NCL web pages. A number of them can be found on the Contours overlaid on contours Application page.

overlay_1.ncl: Create individual plots with gsn_csm_contour_map and gsn_csm_contour, and use overlay to combine them.

As we only wish that the overlaid plot be drawn, gsnDraw and gsnFrame are both set to False in the two resource lists. After overlay is called, draw is called to draw plot, which has had plot_ov overlaid on it. Finally, the frame is advanced, in essence completing the page.

Note that you are not allowed to use any gsn_csm_*_map plotting functions to create the 2nd input in overlay, as an error message will result.

overlay_2.ncl: Similar to example 1, except gsn_csm_contour_map_overlay is used in lieu of overlay.

overlay_3.ncl: Similar to examples 1 and 2, except here plot2 is manually drawn on plot by not advancing the frame upon the creation of plot.

Note that when manually overlaying, one strives to create each plot the exact same size in the exact same location on the page. In this example, that was trivial. In some cases, the vpXF, vpYF, vpWidthF, and vpHeightF resources, various titles and font heights all need to be set the same for both plots.

overlay_4.ncl: Manually overlay 2 histograms.

To get both histograms to be drawn the exact same size and the same, gsnHistogramClassIntervals and trYMaxF needed to be set the same for both plots.

overlay_5.ncl: Documents how to use gsn_contour_shade to create an overlay plot that is then overlaid on the base plot by using overlay.

This is one way to overlay a pattern filled contour field on top of a different color filled contour field. Another way can be found on example 14 on the Contour Effects applications page.

overlay_6.ncl: Demonstrates how to overlay a color filled contour field, streamlines, and color filled vectors all on one plot.

Two label bars are created, one for the color filled contour field, and one for the color filled vector field. Individually 4 plots are created: A plot showing just a map, a color filled contour field plot, a streamline plot, and a color filled vector plot. overlay is then used to overlay the contour, streamline and vector plot on the map plot.

overlay_7.ncl: Documents how to overlay xy plots whose timeseries are of different sizes. As gsn_csm_xy expects each input timeseries to be the same size, this is one method that can be used to add timeseries of different lengths to a single plot.

gsn_add_annotation is used to add a legend to the overlaid plot, which allows the legend to be resized if the plot itself is resized.

conOncon_5.ncl: "Spaghetti" contours overlaid on a map. The first spaghetti contour is created using gsn_csm_contour_map, and subsequent contours are created using gsn_csm_contour.

conOncon_9.ncl: This image describes land use in different resolutions for each domain. This script was originally written in PyNGL by Ufuk Utku Turuncoglu of the Istanbul Technical University in relation to a Turkey Climate Change Scenarios project.

The overlay procedure is used to do the multiple contour overlays. These contours are over a map, so the first contour (coarse) plot is created with gsn_csm_contour_map, and the other two contour plots are created using gsn_csm_contour.

Polylines are drawn on top of the map to show the three domains.

overlay_8.ncl: Shows how to overlay a scatter plot on a contour plot. The key is that the axes of both plots must be in the same data space.

overlay_9.ncl: Shows how to overlay a line contour plot on a filled contour plot when they have two different axes. The key is to use gsn_add_annotation to add the line contour plot as an annotation of the filled contour plot.

Note that the left axis corresponds with the filled contour plot, and the right Y axes with the line contour plot.

Since the axes are not in the same data space, this example only works if the Y ranges of the two plots line up exactly.

overlay_10.ncl: Shows how to overlay a shaded contour plot on a filled contour plot and get labelbars for both plots by drawing one vertically and one horizontally.

xy_32.ncl: This example shows how to draw a 8-curve XY plot with 4 legends stacked side-by-side.

In order to do this, it is necessary to create 4 XY plots, each with two curves and two items in its legend. The legend for each plot is moved to the right or left slightly so they don't overlap. The plots are then all "connected" into one plot using the overlay procedure.