Vector arrows for primary wave direction

Matthias Fripp matthias.fripp at ECI.OX.AC.UK
Wed Nov 4 13:12:48 EST 2009


Hi Nathan,

The equations I gave you assume that "0 degrees" corresponds to due
east, and that the angle counts up as you go counterclockwise. You
would need different equations if these assumptions are not true.
e.g., if the angle shows the number of degrees clockwise from north,
you would need something like this:

display cos((90-DIRPWsfc) * 3.14159/180); sin((90-DIRPWsfc) *
3.14159/180)

If that's not the problem, then it could indeed be a data error.

Best,

Matthias


It sounds like it could be a data problem (I don't know the
On Nov 4, 2009, at 5:12 PM, Nathan Cool wrote:

> Thanks Matthias. I sure do appreciate the help. That produced some
> interesting results, but it didn't seem accurate (arrows pointing in
> some rather bizarre directions). Perhaps though this is a data
> problem, and I need to grab different GRIB files? Currently, I'm
> using GRIBs from the NCEP server:
> ftp://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/pub/waves/latest_run/
>
> -Nathan
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 7:53 AM, Matthias Fripp <matthias.fripp at eci.ox.ac.uk
> > wrote:
> How about this:
>
> set gxout vector
> display cos(DIRPWsfc * 3.14159/180); sin(DIRPWsfc * 3.14159/180)
>
> This converts the wave direction from degrees to radians, and then
> calculates its u and v components.
>
> Matthias
>
> On Nov 4, 2009, at 2:38 PM, Nathan Cool wrote:
>
>> Thanks, but I'm not trying to display "wind" vector arrows;
>> instead, I'm trying to display the primary wave direction.
>>
>> The vars in the Grib are:
>> ------------------------
>> DIRPWsfc  0 107,1,1  ** surface Primary wave direction [deg]
>> DIRSWsfc  0 109,1,1  ** surface Secondary wave direction [deg]
>> HTSGWsfc  0 100,1,1  ** surface Sig height of wind waves and swell
>> [m]
>> PERPWsfc  0 108,1,1  ** surface Primary wave mean period [s]
>> PERSWsfc  0 110,1,1  ** surface Secondary wave mean period [s]
>> UGRDsfc  0 33,1,1  ** surface u wind [m/s]
>> VGRDsfc  0 34,1,1  ** surface v wind [m/s]
>> WDIRsfc  0 31,1,1  ** surface Wind direction [deg]
>> WINDsfc  0 32,1,1  ** surface Wind speed [m/s]
>> WVDIRsfc  0 101,1,1  ** surface Direction of wind waves [deg]
>> WVPERsfc  0 103,1,1  ** surface Mean period of wind waves [s]
>>
>> ...and I can see that others have been able to show the primary
>> wave direction (DIRPWsfc) using vector arrows, as is the case on
>> the FNMOC models like this one:
>> https://www.fnmoc.navy.mil/ww3_cgi/dynamic/ww3.w.npac.sig_wav_ht.000.gif
>>
>> Do you know how this can be done?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> -Nathan
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 9:58 PM, sushant puranik <sushantpuranik at gmail.com
>> > wrote:
>> Hi
>> I am able to generate wind direction. try his
>> 'set arrscl 1 30'
>> 'set cthick 5'
>> 'set arrowhead 0.10'
>> 'set clevs 3 5 10 15 20 25'
>> 'set ccols 0 4 1 2 3 5 12'
>> 'set gxout vector'
>> 'd skip(UGRDsfc,2,2);skip(VGRDsfc,2,2);skip(sqrt(UGRDsfc*UGRDsfc
>> +VGRDsfc*VGRDsfc),2,2)'
>> 'run cbar.gs'
>> 'printim wind(m/s)'
>>
>> with the help of such script i am able to generate output which is
>> attached with this mail.
>>
>> all the best.
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 9:45 PM, Nathan Cool <nathan at nathancool.com>
>> wrote:
>> Good morning everyone,
>>
>> I'm generating wave analysis models, but I'm having a tough time
>> showing the mean-wave (or primary) wave direction arrows.
>>
>> The vars in the Grib are:
>> -------------------------------------------------
>> DIRPWsfc  0 107,1,1  ** surface Primary wave direction [deg]
>> DIRSWsfc  0 109,1,1  ** surface Secondary wave direction [deg]
>> HTSGWsfc  0 100,1,1  ** surface Sig height of wind waves and swell
>> [m]
>> PERPWsfc  0 108,1,1  ** surface Primary wave mean period [s]
>> PERSWsfc  0 110,1,1  ** surface Secondary wave mean period [s]
>> UGRDsfc  0 33,1,1  ** surface u wind [m/s]
>> VGRDsfc  0 34,1,1  ** surface v wind [m/s]
>> WDIRsfc  0 31,1,1  ** surface Wind direction [deg]
>> WINDsfc  0 32,1,1  ** surface Wind speed [m/s]
>> WVDIRsfc  0 101,1,1  ** surface Direction of wind waves [deg]
>> WVPERsfc  0 103,1,1  ** surface Mean period of wind waves [s]
>>
>> For displaying wind vector arrows it's straightforward as there are
>> U and V variables (UGRDsfc and VGRDsfc) for the zonal and
>> meridional components. Displaying primary wave direction though
>> seems more elusive, yet I see it done on many models such as the
>> following:
>> https://www.fnmoc.navy.mil/ww3_cgi/dynamic/ww3.w.npac.sig_wav_ht.000.gif
>>
>> ...which was generated using GrADS by FNMOC.
>>
>> Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated, and thank
>> you for your time.
>>
>> --
>> Nathan Cool
>> nathan at nathancool.com
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Sushant Puranik
>> Junior Research Fellow
>> Dept. of Atmospheric & Space Sciences,
>> University of Pune,
>> Pune-07,
>> India.
>>
>
>

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