500 hPa Vorticity Advection
Plot an 500-hPa map with calculating vorticity advection using MetPy calculations.
Beyond just plotting 500-hPa level data, this uses calculations from metpy.calc to find
the vorticity and vorticity advection. Currently, this needs an extra helper function to
calculate the distance between lat/lon grid points.
Imports
from datetime import datetime
import cartopy.crs as ccrs
import cartopy.feature as cfeature
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import metpy.calc as mpcalc
from metpy.units import units
import numpy as np
from siphon.catalog import TDSCatalog
from xarray.backends import NetCDF4DataStore
import xarray as xr
Function to Compute Earth-Relative Winds
This function takes a data array with relevant information about the projection of the wind component data, along with the grid-relative components of the wind. It outputs the earth-relative components of the wind.
def earth_relative_wind_components(ugrd, vgrd):
"""Calculate the north-relative components of the
wind from the grid-relative components using Cartopy
transform_vectors.
Parameters
----------
ugrd : Xarray DataArray (M, N)
grid relative u-component of the wind
vgrd : Xarray DataArray (M, N)
grid relative v-component of the wind
Returns
-------
unr, vnr : tuple of array-like Quantity
The north-relative wind components in the X (East-West)
and Y (North-South) directions, respectively.
"""
if 'metpy_crs' not in ugrd.coords:
raise ValueError('No CRS in coordinate, be sure to use'
'the MetPy accessor parse_cf()')
data_crs = ugrd.metpy.cartopy_crs
x = ugrd.x.values
y = ugrd.y.values
xx, yy = np.meshgrid(x, y)
ut, vt = ccrs.PlateCarree().transform_vectors(data_crs, xx, yy,
ugrd.values, vgrd.values)
# Make a copy of u and v component DataArrays
uer = ugrd.copy()
ver = vgrd.copy()
# Update values with transformed winds
uer.values = ut
ver.values = vt
return uer, ver
Data Aquisition
dt = datetime(2016, 4, 16, 18)
# Assemble our URL to the THREDDS Data Server catalog,
# and access our desired dataset within via NCSS
base_url = 'https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/thredds/catalog/model-namanl-old/'
cat = TDSCatalog(f'{base_url}{dt:%Y%m}/{dt:%Y%m%d}/catalog.xml')
ncss = cat.datasets[f'namanl_218_{dt:%Y%m%d}_{dt:%H}00_000.grb'].subset()
# Query for Latest GFS Run
query = ncss.query()
query.time(dt)
query.accept('netcdf')
query.variables('Geopotential_height_isobaric',
'u-component_of_wind_isobaric',
'v-component_of_wind_isobaric')
# Obtain our queried data
data = ncss.get_data(query)
ds_data = xr.open_dataset(NetCDF4DataStore(data)).metpy.parse_cf()
ds = ds_data.metpy.assign_latitude_longitude()
times = ds.Geopotential_height_isobaric.metpy.time
vtime = times.values.squeeze().astype('datetime64[ms]').astype('O')
lev_500 = 500 * units.hPa
hght_500 = ds.Geopotential_height_isobaric.metpy.sel(
vertical=lev_500).squeeze()
hght_500 = mpcalc.smooth_gaussian(hght_500, 4)
uwnd_500 = ds['u-component_of_wind_isobaric'].metpy.sel(
vertical=lev_500).squeeze()
vwnd_500 = ds['v-component_of_wind_isobaric'].metpy.sel(
vertical=lev_500).squeeze()
# Compute north-relative wind components for calculation purposes
uwnd_500er, vwnd_500er = earth_relative_wind_components(uwnd_500, vwnd_500)
Begin Data Calculations
avor = mpcalc.vorticity(uwnd_500er, vwnd_500er)
avor = mpcalc.smooth_n_point(avor, 9, 10) * 1e5
vort_adv = mpcalc.advection(avor, uwnd_500er, vwnd_500er) * 1e4
/tmp/ipykernel_2700/3729036084.py:5: UserWarning: Vertical dimension number not found. Defaulting to (..., Z, Y, X) order.
vort_adv = mpcalc.advection(avor, uwnd_500er, vwnd_500er) * 1e4
Map Creation
# Set up Coordinate System for Plot and Transforms
datacrs = ds.Geopotential_height_isobaric.metpy.cartopy_crs
plotcrs = ccrs.LambertConformal(central_latitude=45., central_longitude=-100.,
standard_parallels=[30, 60])
fig = plt.figure(1, figsize=(12., 14.))
ax = plt.subplot(111, projection=plotcrs)
# Plot Titles
plt.title(r'500-hPa Heights (m), AVOR$*10^5$ ($s^{-1}$),'
'AVOR Adv$*10^9$ ($s^{-2}$)', loc='left')
plt.title(f'VALID: {vtime}', loc='right')
# Plot Background
ax.set_extent([235., 290., 20., 58.], ccrs.PlateCarree())
ax.coastlines('50m', edgecolor='black', linewidth=0.75)
ax.add_feature(cfeature.STATES, linewidth=.5)
# Plot Height Contours
clev500 = np.arange(5100, 6061, 60)
cs = ax.contour(hght_500.longitude, hght_500.latitude,
hght_500, clev500,
colors='black', linewidths=1.0,
linestyles='solid', transform=ccrs.PlateCarree())
plt.clabel(cs, fontsize=10, inline=1, inline_spacing=10, fmt='%i',
rightside_up=True, use_clabeltext=True)
# Plot Absolute Vorticity Contours
clevvort500 = np.arange(-9, 50, 5)
cs2 = ax.contour(avor.longitude, avor.latitude,
avor, clevvort500,
colors='grey', linewidths=1.25, linestyles='dashed',
transform=ccrs.PlateCarree())
plt.clabel(cs2, fontsize=10, inline=1, inline_spacing=10, fmt='%i',
rightside_up=True, use_clabeltext=True)
# Plot Colorfill of Vorticity Advection
clev_avoradv = np.arange(-30, 31, 5)
cf = ax.contourf(vort_adv.longitude, vort_adv.latitude, vort_adv,
clev_avoradv[clev_avoradv != 0], extend='both',
cmap='bwr', transform=ccrs.PlateCarree())
cb = plt.colorbar(cf, orientation='horizontal', pad=0, aspect=50,
extendrect='True', ticks=clev_avoradv)
cb.set_label(r'$1/s^2$', size='large')
# Plot Wind Barbs
# Transform Vectors and plot wind barbs.
wind_slice = (slice(None, None, 20), slice(None, None, 20))
xx, yy = np.meshgrid(uwnd_500.x.values[wind_slice[0]],
uwnd_500.y.values[wind_slice[0]])
ax.barbs(xx, yy, uwnd_500.values[wind_slice], vwnd_500.values[wind_slice],
length=6, pivot='middle', transform=datacrs)
<matplotlib.quiver.Barbs at 0x7fedda510df0>
