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wrf_user_ll_to_xy

Finds the nearest WRF-ARW model grid indexes (0-based) that are the closest to the requested longitude and latitude locations.

Available in version 6.6.0 and later.

Prototype

load "$NCARG_ROOT/lib/ncarg/nclscripts/csm/gsn_code.ncl"      ; These two libraries are automatically
load "$NCARG_ROOT/lib/ncarg/nclscripts/wrf/WRFUserARW.ncl"    ; loaded from NCL V6.4.0 onward.
                                                              ; No need for user to explicitly load.

	function wrf_user_ll_to_xy (
		file_handle  : file or list,  
		lon          : numeric,       
		lat          : numeric,       
		opt          : logical        
	)

	return_val  :  float or double

Arguments

file_handle

Reference to a single WRF-ARW NetCDF file opened with addfile or a list of WRF-ARW NetCDF files opened with addfiles.

lon
lat

Longitude and latitude arrays for which index locations into a WRF-ARW model domain are required.

opt

A logical scalar that can optionally contain attributes. See description below.

Return value

An array that holds the index locations of a WRF model domain that are the closest to the requested lon, lat values.

If scalar lon, lat values are inputted, the return value will be a 1D array of length of 2, where the first (leftmost) element represents the X (lon) index and the second (rightmost) element represents the Y (lat) index.

If an array of lon, lat values are inputted, the return value will be a 2 x n array, where n is the length of the lon, lat arrays.

The return values will represent indexes in the WRF-ARW lon, lat model domain and will be 0-based. This is different from wrf_user_ll_to_ij (deprecated in NCL V6.6.0), in which the index values are 1-based.

Description

This function is similar to wrf_user_ll_to_ij (which was deprecated as of NCL V6.6.0), except the indexes returned are 0-based.

This function makes use of map projection information stored in the global attributes of the WRF-ARW file (or files) to find the index locations which are the closest to the requested lat/lon locations. If the requested lat/lon locations are outside your model domain, the returned indexes locations will represent a point outside the domain.

The opt variable can contain the following attributes. Attributes are case-insensitive:

returnInt - True, will return an integer value, False will return real (defaults to True)
useTime - which time in the file should be used when extracting XLAT/XLONG arrays from input file. Only important to set if output is for a moving nest and all the output times are in a single wrfout file.

wrf_user_ll_to_xy is part of a library of functions and procedures in WRFUserARW.ncl written to help users plot ARW WRF model data.

Examples

Example 1

A simple example showing how to use this function to extract a particular lat/lon region of interest for your data. The print statements in this example will also help ensure that you are using this function properly.

  a = addfile("wrfout_d01_2000-01-24_12:00:00.nc","r")

  minlat = 30
  maxlat = 40
  minlon = -80
  maxlon = -70

  opt = True
  loc  = wrf_user_ll_to_xy(a,(/minlon,maxlon/),(/minlat,maxlat/),opt)

;---The requested and calculated values should be close
  print("Requested min/max  xlon = " + minlon + "/" + maxlon)
  print("Calculated min/max xlon = " + xlon(loc(1,0),loc(0,0)) + "/" + \
                                       xlon(loc(1,1),loc(0,1)))

  print("Requested  min/max xlat = " + minlat + "/" + maxlat)
  print("Calculated min/max xlat = " + xlat(loc(1,0),loc(0,0)) + "/" + \
                                       xlat(loc(1,1),loc(0,1)))

;---Just for fun, pick a variable and take a subdomain of it.
  tc2 = wrf_user_getvar(a,"T2",0)   ; T2 in Kelvin
  printMinMax(tc2,0)

  tc2_sub = tc2(loc(1,0):loc(1,1),loc(0,0):loc(0,1))
  tc2_sub@description = tc2@description + " (subdomain)"   ; just an example
  printMinMax(tc2_sub,0)

Example 2

This example shows how using the output from wrf_user_ll_to_xy as input to wrf_user_xy_to_ll should give you close to the same values:

  a    = addfile("wrfout_d01_2000-01-24_12:00:00.nc","r")
  xlat = a->XLAT(0,:,:)
  xlon = a->XLONG(0,:,:)

  minlat =  30
  maxlat =  40
  minlon = -80
  maxlon = -70

;---Get xy indexes, and then use these to get lat/lon values back again.
  opt    = True
  loc    = wrf_user_ll_to_xy(a,(/minlon,maxlon/),(/minlat,maxlat/),opt)
  latlon = wrf_user_xy_to_ll(a,loc(0,:),loc(1,:),opt)


;---The min/max values printed should be close.
  print("----")
  print("Requested  min/max xlon = " + minlon + "/" + maxlon)
  print("Actual     min/max xlon = " + xlon(loc(1,0),loc(0,0)) + "/" + \
                                       xlon(loc(1,1),loc(0,1)))
  print("Calculated min/max xlon = " + latlon(0,0) + "/" + latlon(0,1))

  print("----")
  print("Requested  min/max xlat = " + minlat + "/" + maxlat)
  print("Actual     min/max xlat = " + xlat(loc(1,0),loc(0,0)) + "/" + \
                                       xlat(loc(1,1),loc(0,1)))
  print("Calculated min/max xlat = " + latlon(1,0) + "/" + latlon(1,1))
  print("----")

Example 3

Have the "loc" values returned as floating point values, rather than integers:

  a   = addfile("wrfout_d01_2000-01-24_12:00:00.nc","r")

  res = True
  res@returnInt = False                             ; return real values
  loc  = wrf_user_ll_to_xy(a, -100.0, 40.0, res)
  print("X/Y location is: " + loc)

Example 4

You can retrieve xy coordinates from a list of WRF ARW NetCDF files:

  files = systemfunc("ls -1 wrfout_d01_2000*") + ".nc"
  a = addfiles(files,"r")

  res = True
  res@returnInt = False                             ; return real values
  loc  = wrf_user_ll_to_xy(a, -100.0, 40.0, res)
  print("X/Y locations are: " + loc)

You can see some other example scripts and their resultant images at:

http://www2.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/OnLineTutorial/Graphics/NCL/

Example 5