Grid plots

---

Grid plots are a way to visualise data from a GRID file of a SuperDARN radar(s). Please read RST documentation on how to process GRID files and GRD files from FITACF files.

Gridded parameters given in a grid file are:

Name	parameter name
Line-of-sight Velocity	vec
Power	pwr
Spectral Width	wdt

and a time or record number projected onto a polar format plot in AACGMv2 coordinates.

Basic usage

pyDARN and pyplot need to be imported and the desired GRID file needs to be read in:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import pydarn

#Read in grid file using SuperDARNRead, then read_grid
file = "path/to/grid/file"
SDarn_read = pydarn.SuperDARNRead(file)
grid_data = SDarn_read.read_grid()

With the grid data loaded as a list of dictionaries (grid_data variable in above example), you may now call the plot_grid method. Make sure you tell the method what time, in DateTime format, or record number (numbered from first recorded in file, counting from 0):

import datetime as dt

stime = dt.datetime(year, month, day, hour, minute)
grid_rtn = pydarn.Grid.plot_grid(grid_data, start_time=stime)
plt.show()

In this example, the record at stime was plotted with the defaulted parameter, line-of-sight velocity, being gridded:

You might have noticed that the variable gridplot in the examples above actually holds some information. This dictionary contains the AACGM latitude and longitude of the gridded vectors plotted, as well as the data:

grid_rtn = pydarn.Grid.plot_grid(grid_data, start_time=stime)
print(grid_rtn.keys())

Additional Parameters

In addition to the gridded line-of-sight velocity, you can choose one of two other data products to plot by setting parameter=String name:

Data product	String name
Line of sight velocity (m/s) [Default]	vec
Spectral width (m/s)	wdt
Power (dB)	pwr

Additional Options

Here is a list of all the current options than can be used with plot_grid

Option	Action
record=(int)	Record number to plot
start_time=(datetime.datetime)	The start time of the record to plot
time_delta=(int)	How close to the start time to be to the start time of the record
lowlat=(int)	Control the lower latitude boundary of the plot (default 30/-30 AACGM lat)
boundary=(bool)	Boolean to show the Field-of-View of the radar(s)
cmap=matplotlib.cm	A matplotlib color map object. Will override the pyDARN defaults for chosen parameter
zmin=(int)	Minimum data value for colouring
zmax=(int)	Maximum data value for colouring
colorbar=(bool)	Set true to plot a colorbar (default: True)
colorbar_label=(string)	Label for the colour bar (requires colorbar to be true)
title=(str)	To add a title to the plot
radar_label=(str)	To include a dot at radar location and label of 3 letter code
fov_color=(str)	Fill color of fov
line_color=(str)	Fill color of fov lines
coastline=(bool)	Plots outlines of coastlines below grid data
coords=(Coords)	Coordinates for the data to be plotted in
projs=(Projs)	Projections to plot the data on top of

As an example, the following code plots multiple radar Grid plot:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt 
import datetime as dt
import pydarn

#Read in GRID file
stime = dt.datetime(2015, 3, 8, 14, 2)
grid_file = "20150308.n.grd"
grid_data = pydarn.SuperDARNRead(grid_file).read_grid()

pydarn.Grid.plot_grid(grid_data, start_time=stime,
                      colorbar_label='Velocity (m/s)',
                      radar_label=True, line_color='blue',
                      fov_color='grey')

plt.show()