Help for the main window of the utproc application. Questions, comments, or bugs may be sent to Ben Foster at foster@ucar.edu. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Selecting TGCM history file(s): Clicking on the "Select File(s)" button brings up a dialogue for selecting one or more files from the local disk. Default settings for the file dialogue are: - Directory: "/aim/d/tgcm/timegcm1.2_y2d/py2c" (on the HAO file system) - Filter: "*.nc" (netcdf files) Select files by clicking the left mouse button over the desired file in the "Files" text box. To select a group of files, select the first file, then hold down the shift key and select the last file. All files in between the first and last selection will be highlighted. (This assumes a UNIX operating system) The model times (day,hour,minute) on any group of files must be sequentially increasing, with a constant delta-time between histories. If a single file is selected, there must be more than one history on the file. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Selecting start and end times: After files have been selected, the model times on all files are displayed in two scrollable text widgets, one for selecting the desired start time, and another for the desired ending time to be plotted. Default values are the first and last times in the file sequence, respectively. Use the left mouse button to override these defaults. The selected start time must be less than the selected end time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Selecting fields to plot: All 4-d variables (lon,lat,lev,time) found on the first file are displayed in a scrollable text widget. By default, only the first field is selected. An adjacent text widget displays the currently selected fields. To select additional fields, hold down the "control" key while selecting with the left mouse button, or hold down the "shift" key to select a subset of the list. Selected fields must exist on all files (at least those files containing the start and end times). Currently, the application assumes that 4-d variables found on the first file exist on all files, so this is the user's responsibility. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Selecting the output device: There are currently two possible output devices: the X display (i.e., an IDL draw window on your screen), or a postscript file. You may select one or the other (not both) by using the two radio buttons labeled "X11 Display" and "Postscript". When "Postscript" is selected, the current ps output file is displayed in an editable text widget labeled "PS output file:" (see below for more information). You can toggle seamlessly between X and the currently open PS file, using the radio buttons. When the output device is PS, any generated plots are appended to the currently open PS file. When the output device is X, plots are displayed sequentially in the IDL window (see below for more information). When the application is started, the default output device is postscript, and the default ps file is "utproc.ps" in the current working directory (i.e., the directory from which utproc was started). NOTE: If the file utproc.ps exists when the application is started, it will be truncated, and any former contents will be lost. You can specify a new PS file by typing in the "PS output file:" text window. Its best to hit the "return" key to enter the file name, but this is not necessary. Be aware that when you specify a new file, the previous PS file will be closed, and IT CANNOT BE REOPENED FOR APPENDING. If you specify a file that already exists and is non-empty, a warning dialogue pop-up will appear giving you the choice of either opening and truncating the file, or cancelling and reverting to the currently open file. You can use ghostview to preview the currently open PS file, however ghostview will hang when displaying the last image in the file until the file is closed (by starting a new PS file, or exiting the application). When X is the output device, the first plot will be displayed in an IDL window and the cursor will be changed to an hourglass, and all utproc widgets are blocked. To advance to the next plot, place the cursor in the plot window (or any utproc window), and click the left mouse button. After the last plot of the series is displayed, the cursor will revert to an arrow, and utproc widgets will become active again. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Control buttons at bottom of the main window: "Plot ut vs pressure" Clicking on this button brings up a window in which you can set up contour plots with time on the x-axis and pressure on the y-axis. You select lat,lon locations to be displayed, and the bottom and top pressures for the y-axis. Repeated clicking on this button will bring up additional instances of this window, so different sequences of plots can be set up. There is a separate help button in this window. "Plot ut vs latitude" Clicking on this button brings up a window in which you can set up contour plots with time on the x-axis and latitude on the y-axis. You select desired pressure levels and longitudes to be plotted, and the latitude range for the y-axis. Repeated clicking on this button will bring up additional instances of this window, so different sequences of plots can be set up. There is a separate help button in this window. "Exit Utproc" Clicking on this button exits the application. All windows related to the current instance of the application are destroyed. The current PS output file is closed.