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NCL Graphics: Isolines

Isolines

get_isolines - this function enables you to retrieve the points that define contour lines in an NCL contour plot. This then allows you to select particular isolines for special processing, for example, to smooth them, remove them from the plot, or change them in some other fashion.

Important note: there's a serious bug in get_isolines that causes it to return non-sensical values for NCL versions 6.4.0 and earlier. We have fixed this bug in NCL Version 6.5.0.

isolines_1.ncl: This script shows how to use get_isolines to retrieve all the isolines from an NCL contour plot, and then highlight the ones that fall in a particular range of levels using polylines and polymarkers.

The first image is the original contour plot. The second image is a map plot with the isolines drawn and/or highlighted with gsn_add_polyline and gsn_add_polymarker.

The isolines are returned as a list, so you need to use the special "[...]" syntax to access each line.

isolines_2.ncl: This script shows how to use get_isolines to retrieve all the isolines from an NCL contour plot, and redraw them on a map plot using polylines.

The top image is the original contour plot drawn with gsn_csm_contour_map. The bottom image is a map plot with the isolines drawn with gsn_add_polyline.

The two plots should be identical except for the titles.

isolines_3.ncl: This script retrieves the isolines from a busy WRF contour plot, and then uses a special function ("add_isolines_by_range") to cull some of the isolines to make the second plot less busy.

The isolines are culled by examining the range of the lat/lon box that each one falls in. If the lat/lon box is smaller than the given range, then the isolines are not drawn.

The top left plot is the original contour plot. The top right plot is a map plot with all the isolines drawn. These two plots should be identical except for the titles. The bottom plot is with the isolines culled.

isolines_4.ncl: This script is similar to the previous WRF script, except unstructured MPAS data is plotted, and different methods are used to cull the busy isolines.

The top left plot is the original contour plot. The top right plot is a map plot with all the isolines drawn. These two plots should be identical except for the titles.

The bottom three plots show three different culling methods used:

  1. "add_isolines_reduced" - isolines that have a large number of points are culled by removing every n-th point.

  2. "add_isolines_by_range" - isolines that are in too small of a lat/lon range are not drawn.

  3. "add_isolines_by_reduced_and_by_range" - isolines are culled using methods #1 and #2.