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ALCF

Automatic Lidar and Ceilometer
Framework

Command line interface

alcf-plot – Plot lidar data.

Synopsis

alcf plot <plot_type> [<options>] [<plot_options>] [--] <input> <output>

Description

Arguments following -- are treated as literal strings. Use this delimiter if the input or output file names might otherwise be interpreted as non-strings, e.g. purely numerical file names.

Arguments

  • plot_type: Plot type (see Plot types below).
  • input: Input filename or directory.
  • output: Output filename or directory.
  • options: See Options below.
  • plot_options: Plot type specific options. See Plot options below.

Plot types

  • backscatter: Plot backscatter from alcf lidar output on time-height axes.
  • backscatter_hist: Plot backscatter histogram from alcf stats output on backscatter-height axes.
  • backscatter_sd_hist: Plot backscatter standard deviation histogram from alcf stats output.
  • cbh: Plot cloud base height distribution from alcf stats output.
  • cl: Plot model cloud area fraction from alcf lidar output on time-height axes.
  • cli: Plot model mass fraction of cloud ice from alcf lidar output on time-height axes.
  • cloud_occurrence: Plot cloud occurrence by height from alcf stats output.
  • clw: Plot model mass fraction of cloud liquid water from alcf lidar output on time-height axes.
  • clw+cli: Plot model mass fraction of cloud liquid water and ice from alcf lidar output on time-height axes.

General options

  • dpi: <value>: Resolution in dots per inch (DPI). Default: 300.
  • --grid: Plot grid.
  • height: <value>: Plot height (inches). Default: 5 if plot_type is cloud_occurrence or backscatter_hist else 4.
  • interp: <value>: Vertical interpolation method. area_block for area-weighting with block interpolation, area_linear for area-weighting with linear interpolation or linear for simple linear interpolation. Default: area_linear.
  • render: <value>: Render profiles anti-aliased (antialiased) or standard (standard). Standard is more suitable for short time intervals. Default: antialiased.
  • subcolumn: <value>: Model subcolumn to plot. Default: 0.
  • title: <value>: Plot title.
  • width: <value>: Plot width (inches). Default: 5 if plot_type is cloud_occurrence or backscatter_hist else 10.

backscatter options

  • cloud_mask: <value>: Plot cloud mask. Default: true.
  • lr: <value>: Plot effective lidar ratio. Default: true.
  • remove_bmol: <value>: Remove molecular backscatter (observed data have to be coupled with model data via the couple option of alcf lidar). Default: true.
  • sigma: <value>: Remove of number of standard deviations of backscatter from the mean backscatter (real). Default: 5.
  • vlim: { <min> <max }: Value limits (10^-6 m-1.sr-1). Default: { 0.1 200 }.
  • vlog: <value>: Plot values on logarithmic scale: true of false. Default: true.

backscatter_hist options

  • vlim: { <min> <max> }: Value limits (%) or none for auto. If none and vlog is none, min is set to 1e-3 if less or equal to zero. Default: none.
  • --vlog: Use logarithmic scale for values.
  • xlim: { <min> <max> }: x axis limits (10^-6 m-1.sr-1) or none for automatic. Default: none.
  • zlim: { <min> <max> }: z axis limits (m) or none for automatic. Default: none.

backscatter_sd_hist options

  • xlim: { <min> <max> }: x axis limits (10^-6 m-1.sr-1) or none for automatic. Default: none.
  • zlim: { <min> <max> }: z axis limits (%) or none for automatic. Default: none.

cl options

  • vlim: { <min> <max> }: Value limits (%). Default: { 0 100 }.
  • vlog: <value>: Plot values on logarithmic scale: true of false. Default: false.
  • zres: <zres>: Height resolution (m). Default: 50.

cli, clw, and clw+cli options

  • vlim: { <min> <max> }: Value limits (g/kg). Default: { 1e-3 1 }.
  • vlog: <value>: Plot values on logarithmic scale: true of false. Default: true.
  • zres: <zres>: Height resolution (m). Default: 50.

cbh and cloud_occurrence options

  • colors: { <value>... }: Line colors. Default: { #0084c8 #dc0000 #009100 #ffc022 #ba00ff }
  • labels: { <value>... }: Line labels. Default: none.
  • linestyle: { <value> ... }: Line style (solid, dashed, dotted). Default: solid.
  • lw: <value>: Line width. Default: 1.
  • xlim: { <min> <max> }: x axis limits (%). Default: { 0 100 }.
  • zlim: { <min> <max> }: z axis limits (m). Default: { 0 15 }.

Examples

Plot backscatter from processed Vaisala CL51 data in alcf_cl51_lidar and store the output in the directory alcf_cl51_backscatter.

alcf plot backscatter alcf_cl51_lidar alcf_cl51_backscatter