NAME
grdcontour - contouring of 2-D gridded data sets
SYNOPSIS
grdcontour grdfile - Ccont_int - Jparameters [ -
Aanot_int[ffont_size][aangle][/r/g/b][o]] ] [ -Btickinfo ] [
-Ddumpfile ] [ -Eazimuth/elevation ] [ -Fred/green/blue ] [
- Ggap/width ] [ -K ] [ -Llow/high ] [ -M[flag] ] [ -N[unit]
] [ -O ] [ -P ] [ -Qcut ] [ -Rwest/east/south/north[r] ] [ -
Ssmoothfactor ] [ - T[+|-][gap/length][:LH] ] [ -
U[/dx/dy/][label] ] [ -V ] [ -Wtype[pen] ] [ -Xx-shift ] [
-Yy-shift ] [ -Zfactor[/shift] ] [ -ccopies ]
DESCRIPTION
grdcontour reads a 2-D gridded file and produces a contour
map by tracing each contour through the grid. As an option,
the x/y/z positions of the contour lines may be dumped to a
single multisegment file or many separate files. PostScript
code is generated and sent to standard output. Various
options that affect the plotting are available.
No space between the option flag and the associated
arguments. Use upper case for the option flags and lower
case for modifiers.
grdfile
2-D gridded data set to be contoured
-C The contours to be drawn may be specified in one of
three possible ways:
If cont_int has the suffix ".cpt" and can be opened as
a file, it is assumed to be a color palette table. The
color boundaries are then used as contour levels. If
the cpt-file has anotation flags in the last column
then those contours will be anotated. By default no
contours are labeled; use -A to anotate all contours.
If cont_int is a file but not a cpt-file, it is
expected to contain contour levels in column 1 and a
C(ontour) OR A(nnotate) in col 2. The levels marked C
(or c) are contoured, the levels marked A (or a) are
contoured and annotated. Optionally, a third column
may be present and contain the fixed anotation angle
for this contour level.
If no file is found, then cont_int is interpreted as a
constant contour interval. If -A is set and -C is not,
then the contour interval is set equal to the specified
anotation interval.
If a file is given and -T is set, then only contours
marked with upper case C or A will have tickmarks.
-J Selects the map projection. Scale is inch/degree,
1:xxxxx. or width in inch (upper case modifier).
CYLINDRICAL PROJECTIONS:
-Jclon0/lat0/scale (Cassini)
-Jmscale (Mercator - Greenwich and Equator as origin)
-Jmlon0/lat0/scale (Mercator - Give meridian and stan-
dard parallel)
-Joalon0/lat0/azimuth/scale (Oblique Mercator - point
and azimuth)
-Joblon0/lat0/lon1/lat1/scale (Oblique Mercator - two
points)
-Joclon0/lat0/lonp/latp/scale (Oblique Mercator - point
and pole)
- Jqlon0/scale (Equidistant Cylindrical Projection
(Plate Carree))
-Jtlon0/scale (TM - Transverse Mercator)
-Juzone/scale (UTM - Universal Transverse Mercator)
-Jylon0/lats/scale (Basic Cylindrical Projection)
AZIMUTHAL PROJECTIONS:
-Jalon0/lat0/scale (Lambert).
-Jelon0/lat0/scale (Equidistant).
-Jglon0/lat0/scale (Orthographic).
-Jslon0/lat0/scale (General Stereographic)
CONIC PROJECTIONS:
-Jblon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Albers)
-Jllon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Lambert)
MISCELLANEOUS PROJECTIONS:
-Jhlon0/scale (Hammer)
-Jilon0/scale (Sinusoidal)
-Jklon0/scale (Eckert VI)
-Jnlon0/scale (Robinson)
-Jrlon0/scale (Winkel Tripel)
-Jwlon0/scale (Mollweide)
NON-GEOGRAPHICAL PROJECTIONS:
-Jpscale (Linear projection for polar (theta,r) coordi-
nates)
-Jxx-scale[l|ppow][/y-scale[l|ppow]] (Linear, log, and
power scaling)
More details can be found in the psbasemap manpages.
OPTIONS
No space between the option flag and the associated argu-
ments.
- A anot_int is annotation interval in data units.
Ignored if contour levels are given in a file.
[Default is no annotations]. Several options can be
set to modify the form of the annotation. Append
ffont_size to change font size [9], append /r/g/b to
change color of text fill box [PAGE_COLOR], append aan-
gle to fix annotation angle [Default follows contour],
and append o to draw the outline of the surrounding
text box [Default is no outline].
-B Sets map boundary tickmark intervals. See psbasemap
for details.
-D Dump the (x,y,z) coordinates of each contour to
separate files, one for each contour segment. The files
will be named dumpfile_cont_segment[_i].xyz, where cont
is the contour value and segment is a running segment
number for each contour interval (for closed contours
we append _i.) However, when -M is used in conjunction
with -D a single multisegment file is created instead.
-E Sets the viewpoint's azimuth and elevation for per-
spective view [180/90]
-F Sets the color used for Frame and annotation. [Default
is black]
-G gap is distance in inch between each annotation along
the same contour. width is number of points over which
to estimate the best fitting slope for contour labels
[Default is 4/10].
-K More PostScript code will be appended later [Default
terminates the plot system].
-L Limit range: Do not draw contours for data values
below low or above high.
-M When used in conjunction with -D a single multisegment
file is created, and each contour section is preceeded
by a header record whose first column is flag followed
by the contour level.
-N Appends unit to all contour labels (assuming - A is
set). If no name is specified, the unit given in the
grdfile will be used [Default is no unit].
-O Selects Overlay plot mode [Default initializes a new
plot system].
- P Selects Portrait plotting mode [GMT Default is
Landscape, see gmtdefaults to change this].
-Q Do not draw contours with less than cut number of
points [Draw all contours].
-R west, east, south, and north specify the Region of
interest. To specify boundaries in degrees and minutes
[and seconds], use the dd:mm[:ss] format. Append r if
lower left and upper right map coordinates are given
instead of wesn. [Default is region defined in the grd
file].
-S Used to resample the contour lines at roughly every
(gridbox_size/smoothfactor) interval.
-T Will draw tickmarks pointing in the downward direction
every gap along the innermost closed contours. Append
gap and tickmark length (in inch) or use defaults
[0.2/0.04]. User may choose to tick only local highs
or local lows by specifying -T+ or - T-, respectively.
Appending :LH will plot the characters L and H at the
center of closed innermost contours (local lows and
highs). L and H can be any single character (e.g., LH,
-+, etc.) If a file is given by -C and -T is set, then
only contours marked with upper case C or A will have
tickmarks [and anotation].
-U Draw Unix System time stamp on plot. User may specify
where the lower left corner of the stamp should fall on
the page relative to lower left corner of plot in inch
[Default is (-0.75,-0.75)]. Optionally, append a
label, or c (which will plot the command string.)
-V Selects verbose mode, which will send progress reports
to stderr [Default runs "silently"].
-W type, if present, can be 'a' for annotated contours or
'c' for regular contours [Default]. pen sets the
attributes for the particular line. Default values for
annotated contours: width = 3, color = black, texture
= solid. Regular contours have default width = 1.
-X -Y
Shift origin of plot by (x-shift,y-shift) inch
[Default is (1,1) for new plots, (0,0) for overlays].
-Z Use to multiply data values by factor [and optionally
add shift] before contouring starts. (Numbers in A, -
C, -L refer to values after this scaling has occurred.)
-c Specifies the number of plot copies. [Default is 1]
EXAMPLES
To contour the file hawaii_grav.grd every 25 mGal on a
Mercator map at 0.5 inch/degree, annotate every 50 mGal
(using fontsize = 10), using 1 degree tickmarks, and draw 30
minute gridlines, try
grdcontour hawaii_grav.grd -Jm0.5 -C25 - A50f10 - B1g30m >
hawaii_grav.ps
To contour the file image.grd using the levels in the file
cont.d on a linear projection at 0.1 inch/x-unit and 50
inch/y-unit, using 20 (x) and 0.1 (y) tickmarks, smooth the
contours a bit, use "RMS Misfit" as plot-title, use a thick
red pen for annotated contours, and a thin, dashed, blue pen
for the rest, try
grdcontour image.grd -Jx0.1/50.0 -Ccont.d -S4 -B20/0.1:."RMS
Misfit": -Wa5/255/0/0 -Wc1/0/0/255ta | lpr
BUGS
The text-outline box has not been implemented for perspec-
tive view plots. Anotations will plot correctly, but con-
tours will go right through the text.
The labeling of local highs and lows may plot outside the
innermost contour since only the mean value of the contour
coordinates is used to position the label.
There are too many options.
SEE ALSO
gmt, psbasemap, grdimage, grdview, pscontour
REFERENCES
Wessel, P., and W. H. F. Smith, 1995, The Generic Mapping
Tools (GMT) version 3.0 Technical Reference & Cookbook,
SOEST/NOAA.
Wessel, P., and W. H. F. Smith, 1995, New Version of the
Generic Mapping Tools Released, EOS Trans. AGU, 76, p. 329.
Wessel, P., and W. H. F. Smith, 1995, New Version of the
Generic Mapping Tools Released,
http://www.agu.org/eos_elec/95154e.html, Copyright 1995 by
the American Geophysical Union.
Wessel, P., and W. H. F. Smith, 1991, Free Software Helps
Map and Display Data, EOS Trans. AGU, 72, p. 441.