Paneling similar WRF-NCL plots

These WRF plots are filled contours over a map. The contour/map plots below are of the "T2" variable on a WRF file that has 4 time steps. This is a "nice" case, because all plots are the same size.

[You need to download WRFUserARW_new.ncl and gsn_code_new.ncl in order to run the scripts below.]

Using wrf_map_overlay and leaving all the titles and labelbars as is, here's what you would normally get for the individual plots:

wrf_all.ncl
Frame 1	Frame 2	Frame 3	Frame 4

Note the titles on the bottom and top, and the extra space above the labelbar. If you try to panel these plots, you get:

The text from paneled plots run into each other, because they are different lengths and longer than the plots themselves.

Paneled plots with no bottom titles

If you turn off the bottom titles by setting the special WRF resource "NoTitles" to False, you get something slightly better:

wrf_nobottomtitles.ncl

Paneled plots with no bottom titles and labelbars moved closer to plot

The labelbars are still too far from the plots, so you can move them closer using a resource:

wrf_movelbar.ncl

Paneled plots with a common labelbar

You can turn off individual labelbars and turn on a common panel labelbar:

wrf_commonlbar.ncl

Paneled plots with white space added

The plots above are a little too close together, so we can add some white space:

wrf_wspace.ncl

Paneled plots with common title

Finally, since the top left titles of each plot are the same, we can use a common title:

wrf_commontitle.ncl

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