Plot-MODE-Field Functionality
The Plot-MODE-Field tool reads one or more MODE NetCDF output files and creates PNG images to display the data. While other MET tools produce PostScript images (which may by converted to PNG using the ImageMagick convert tool), the Plot-MODE-Field tool produces PNG files directly. The downside is the additional external dependencies on the Cairo graphics and FreeType libraries. For this reason, the compilation of MODE-Graphics is disabled by default. If you did not configure MET with --enable-mode-graphics, you may proceed to the next tool.
Plot-MODE-Field Usage
View the usage statement for Plot-MODE-Field by simply typing the following:
At a minimum, the -raw | -simple | -cluster argument indicating the types of objects to be plotted, the -obs | -fcst argument specifying whether to plot the observed or forecast field from the MODE output files, the -config path specifying the configuration file to use for specification of plotting options, and the mode_nc_file_list specifying the MODE output files to be used for plotting must be specified on the command line.
Font Data
The Plot-MODE-Field uses GhostScript font data at runtime. Since this tool is optional, the font data is not included in the MET tarball. Prior to running Plot-MODE-Field, users must first download Ghostscript font data. Please follow the link, retrieve the tarball, and save it in the data directory. Unpack the tarball and define the MET_FONT_DIR environment variable to the full path of the newly created data/fonts directory.
Return to the top-level MET directory, if necessary.
