Vertical cross section and vectors

Hello all - I am trying to plot a vertical cross section, against
altitude in meters, along a particular line of longitude, with vectors
representing the winds.

I have used ERA-Interim data, with /v/ for the meridional wind and a
calculated vertical wind /w/ from the ERAI omega vertical motion, so
both /v/ and /w/ are in units of m/s. These are on pressure levels, so I
have used the ERAI geopotential field /z/ to calculate a height in
meters for each grid point (pressure level, lat, lon). I have then used
the /int2p_n/ function to interpolate the /v/ and /w/ arrays to altitude
levels using the height field. All good so far.

The problem I am having is in trying to plot the wind vectors. My cross
section should run from 90 deg South to the equator, and from the
surface to about 20,000 meters altitude. I understand that the aspect
ratio of this plot will cause a problem; the horizontal axis scale is
about 10^7 meters, and the vertical only about 10^4. Also, the
horizontal component of the wind /v/ is of order of magnitude 10, and
the vertical only about 0.01. The question is, how do I get the vectors
to plot so that upward or downward motion is clearly evident? And how
can I be sure that the vectors represent the true angle of the vector
wind field, which is of great importance in this particular case?

Many thanks for any assistance!

-- 
Tess Parker
PhD Candidate
School of Mathematical Sciences
Room 225, Building 28
Monash University, Clayton VIC 3800
Phone: +61 3 9905 4458

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Received on Mon Jul 23 21:39:39 2012