TOVS Path-P IDL Tools Tutorial

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Introduction  |   Getting Started  |   Tutorial:  1  2  3  4  |   Example:  1  2  3  4  |   Extended Help

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Introduction

NSIDC developed a number of IDL programs to browse and visualize TOVS Pathfinder Path-P Daily and Monthly Polar Gridded Atmospheric Parameters data files. The IDL tools described in this tutorial are available via FTP. For instructions on installing these tools, see the Getting Started section. Installing and running these IDL tools allows the user to perform the following functions (refer to the Tutorial for examples of each):

• Listing a table of contents, including dates, daily variables and ancillary data
• Displaying a color image of any variable and date
• Displaying a color animation of any variable and a range of dates
• Displaying a scatter plot of any two variables for a given date
• Displaying a time-series plot of any (column,row) coordinate for any variable and range of dates
• Displaying a table of general statistics (minimum, maximum, average, standard deviation) for any variable and range of dates
• Extracting, saving, and restoring a 3-dimensional array of data and its associated metadata for any variable and range of dates
• Conversion routines for (latitude,longitude) to/from (column,row) coordinates

The IDL tools were developed at NSIDC with the exception of colorbar.pro, which is used for the legends on most of the color graphics displays. Colorbar.pro is included here by the kind permission of its author, Dr. David Fanning.