NCL Home > Documentation > Functions > Meteorology

wind_component

Calculate zonal and meridional wind components from wind speed and wind direction.

Available in version 6.1.0 and later.

Prototype

load "$NCARG_ROOT/lib/ncarg/nclscripts/csm/contributed.ncl"

	function wind_component (
		wspd  : numeric,  ; float, double, integer only
		wdir  : numeric,  
		opt   : integer   
	)

Arguments

wspd

A variable of any dimensionality containing the wind speed, Array size and shape must match wdir.

wdir

A variable of any dimensionality containing the meteorological wind direction, Array size and shape must match wspd.

opt

Currently, not used. Set to zero (0).

Return value

A double array is returned if wspd is double, otherwise a float array is returned.

The returned array will have an extra dimension of size 2 as the leftmost dimension:

  2 x dimsizes(wspd)

Description

Calculates meteorological wind direction.

Examples

Example 1

   u = (/ 10,   0,   0, -10, 10, 10, -10, -10, 0/)
   v = (/  0,  10, -10,   0, 10,-10,  10, -10, 0/)
   wdir = wind_direction(u,v,0)
   print(u+"  "+v+"  "+wdir)

   print("=====================")

   wspd = sqrt(u^2 + v^2)

   uv   = wind_component(wspd,wdir,0)

   printVarSummary(uv)
   print(uv(0,:)+"  "+uv(1,:))

Output from wind_direction

         U     V    dir
(0)	10     0    270    (west)
(1)	 0    10    180    (south)
(2)      0   -10      0    (north)
(3)    -10     0     90    (east)

(4)	10    10    225    (southwest)
(5)	10   -10    315    (northwest)
(6)    -10    10    135    (northeast)
(7)    -10   -10     45    (southeast)

(8)	 0     0      0    (calm;   opt=0)

Output from wind_component