Contour

written by Joey Mukherjee -

joey@swri.edu

Table of contents

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1. Overview
2. Plot Types
3. Getting Started
4. Changing the plot...
   1. Data Definition
   2. Data Binning
   3. Plot Definition
   4. Output Definition
   5. Color Bar Definition
5. Source Button
6. Time Button
7. File Button
8. Draw Button
9. Help Button

Overview

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Contour performs contouring of IDFS data. The Contour program is fully menu driven and can perform a variety of contour plots depending on the parameters defined. Single and multiple plots are supported - all fully annotated and correctly ticked.

Plot Types

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Currently, two different types of plots are supported and are defined briefly here. For a more complete description (i.e. full source analysis), see the XY Plot and ZR Plot sections.

The first type of plot is the XY Plot. An XY Plot must be made on a spinning satellite. For an XY Plot, data is read from a given IDFS source and converted to a given units until a full spin of data is read. Each energy (azimuthal) angle is read and converted into its component X and Y. After all X and Y's have been read, they are plotted with their respective intensities.

The second type of plot is the ZR Plot. For this type of plot, all sensors are used and are plotted with the given angles in the PIDF (not currently implemented). Unlike the XY Plot, a ZR Plot is applicable on both a spinning and non-spinning satellite. Furthermore, a ZR plot will work with a sweep of data or a spin of data. Data is read from a given IDFS source and converted to the given units until the number of spins/sweeps has been reached (or end time). Both the phi angle and the theta angles are used in the computation of the X and Y's which are plotted. Theta is kept constant for each sensor and phi is the average of the azimuthal angles.

Getting Started

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To start a contour plot, first select an IDFS source with the "Source" button. Next, select a valid time with the "Time" button. You must select a time for which data exists. Contour will not check whether data exists until you initiate a draw. At this point, you have enough information to begin a plot as all other infomation is defaulted. The main point of concern is what units the plot will be drawn in. You can change the units from the "Data Definition" button. The default, however, is whatever the last unit is as defined by the PIDF file for the given virtual. To plot, select "Draw" from the main menubar and select "Draw from first page". The plot should then be drawn.

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Changing the plot through the rest of the menus...

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Data Definition

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• Rotation - either sweeps or spins. For a non-spinning satellite, this must be sweeps.
• # of Rotations - tells how many sweeps/spins to gather data for and average.
• Skip - number of plots to skip - currently unimplemented.
• Weight - option to select exponent of the denominator in weighting. When interpolating data to grid points, weighth is used to define how fast the influence of the data falls off. The value is ¹/_r^weight.
• Neighbors - option to select the number of neighbors to be used in interpolating the data to a grid point. (Best left alone)
• Order - option to select order of the data. (Best left alone)
• Cyclic - if the data is cyclic, the contour algorithm will make an effort to connect points together if a piece is missing. If you find that large chunks of data are missing, turn cyclic off. Otherwise, leave it on to have a more complete plot.
• Rectangular - if this is set, you will be putting each intensity into a "bin". When all data is read, the data will be normalized by dividing each bin by the number of items in that bin. The limits of the bins are defined in the binning dialog.
• If manual.... - if this is set to "Velocities", values entered into the Plot Box Definition are assumed to be velocities and must be converted into energies.
• Plot Type - either an XY Plot or a ZR Plot.
• Data Units - defined data units as read from the PIDF file. Used when converting to units on the intensities.
• Scan Units - defined scan units from the PIDF file. Used on the energies.

Data Binning

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Data Binning is only applicable when "Rectangular" is set to "Yes" in the "Data Definition" menu.

• Minimum X - smallest X value to bin.
• Maximum X - largest X value to bin.
• Minimum Y - smallest Y value to bin.
• Maximum Y - largest Y value to bin.
• Number of Grid Points on the X Axis - number of bins along the X axis.
• Number of Grid Points on the Y Axis - number of bins along the Y axis.

The interval of the bins is Max + Min / Number of Grid Points for each axis.

Plot Box Definition

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• Scale Type - this can be PIDF Scale, Auto Scale, or Manual Scale.
  1. PIDF Scale means the upper/lower limits of the contour are based on what values are read from the IDFS Data. The color bar limits are read from the PIDF.
  2. Auto Scale means the upper/lower limits of the contour are based on what values are read from the IDFS Data. Color bar limits are determined in the Color Bar Dialog.
  3. Manual Scale means the upper/lower limits are given by the user in the Min/Max - X/Y axis definitions. These are inactive until manual scale is selected.

Output Definition

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These mainly affect the cosmetics of the plot.

• Auto Lines - option to indicate if the lines should be autoscaled.
• Show Grid - will display plus signs (+) at each grid point.
• Save Grid - (unknown)
• 3D Plot - not implemented
• Output Type - can be Lines, Color, Colored Lines, Color and Lines.
  • Lines - will only draw lines - no color.
  • Color - will draw color values for each point.
  • Colored Lines - will draw colored lines between points.
  • Color and Lines - will draw color values for each point and overlay that with actual lines.
• Smoothing Value - option to select the resolution of the color interpolation. This is only applicable if the user selects Color or Color and Lines.
• Plots per page - how many plots to put on each page. This can be a number between zero and ten. A value of zero indicates that the number of sensors is to be placed in that value and that each row or column will be a different sensor. Only one of the two (either rows or columns) may be set to zero.
• Rows - number of rows in the grid. Recommended that this value not be changed.
• Columns - number of columns in the grid. Recommended that this value not be changed.
• Number of Levels - number of contour levels to plot - used in lines plots.
• Line Increment - option to indicate the number of lines to increment before printing line numbers. Make sure to set line number format.
• Start Level - option to select the beginning contour level. Changing this value changes the STEP SIZE.
• Stop Level - option to select the ending contour level.
• Step Size - option to select the step size between contour levels.
• Data Point Fmt - number format for each data point. If this value is left blank, data points are not annotated on the plot. If a %c is used, a '*' will be placed at each data point.
• Line Number Fmt - number format for the numbers to be placed on the contour lines. Leave this blank to remove numbers.
• Line Color - can be either Normal or Reverse. Normal will draw lines in white. Reverse draws lines in black. If "Line Number Format" is filled in, the numbers are drawn in the same color as the lines.

Color Bar Definition

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• Color Scale - can be linear or log. Linear means a linear scale will be used. Log means a logrithmic scale. This value is initialized from the PIDF.
• Min Color Value - Minimum value for the color bar. Initialized from the PIDF.
• Max Color Value - Maximum value for the color bar. Initialized from the PIDF.
• Possible Color Tables - select from here to change the color table used on the plot.

  Value	Color Table
  Color
  Grayshade
  Earth Tones
  Double Color

• Show Color Bar - can be Yes or No. If "Yes", the following options are available :
• Major Tic Length - length of the major tic marks on the color bar.
• Minor Tic Length - length of the minor tic marks on the color bar.
• Number Size - size of the numbers on the left of the color bar.
• Number Format - format of the numbers on the left of color bar. Use "log" to specify numbers like 10⁶.
• Label Size - size of the label above the color bar.

Source

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Click through a project, mission, experiment, instrument, virtual instrument, data type, sensor group, and sensor. Each value must be specified regardless. To go backward, click on the buttons on the right hand side.

Time

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Use the sliders or type the values in the boxes to set the time. The stop time must be greater than the start time. The time is initially set to the current time.

File Button

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• New - reinitialize all the structures - essentially start over!
• Open - load a previous .CO file into memory.
• Save - save the current values into a .CO file.
• Save As - save the current values to a new file name.
• Delete - delete an old .CO file.
• Quit - exit the program.

Draw Button

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Draw from current page - draws the next contour from current place in the IDFS data source. If you have never plotted, this is the same as the option below. If you change the source, or anything in the "Data Definition" menu, it will always draw from the first page regardless if you pick this option.

Draw from first page - draws a contour from the start of the IDFS data source.

Help

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About - does nothing - there is no help, this is it!

Detail plot analysis

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Describe XY Plot

ZR Plot

Describe ZR Plot