"Vertical scale" preferences have no effect for...

[mhiley]

...the "Color-Shaded Parameter as Topography" display control. I think this is more of a request for more flexibility/convenience in the "Color-Shaded Parameter as Topopraphy" control than a bug, so I put it under "Feature Requests". (And sorry Joleen... almost forgot about this one!)

So, a few weeks ago Joleen and I worked on an animation showing water vapor brightness temperatures as a 3D topography, and then the topography was shaded by those temperatures. We first tried to use the "Color-Shaded Parameter as Topography" control, but found that the "Vertical Scale" settings has no effect (View -> Properties -> Vertical Scale). It appears that the display control just chooses a useable default scale for whatever parameter you are turning into a topography, and doesn't allow that to be changed. This was a problem, because we needed smaller temperatures to be "higher" (vertically, that is) than the larger temperatures (i.e. invert the vertical scale). Also, it doesn't allow the flexibility of "stretching" the vertical scale to make a better image.

We got around this by instead using the "Color-Shaded Image over Topography" control, but this results in several annoyances. You have to use the "Change Unit" formula to change kelvin to meters. Now you can "invert" the vertical scale and tinker with it, but you also have to re-display the brightness temperatures as an "Image Display" (and make it transparent) in order to get a useful color legend. Also, the unit label on the vertical scale legend would theoretically be misleading were you to display it.

Anyways, in summary: we want to be able to use the "Color-Shaded Parameter as Topography" control, but with the flexibility in "Vertical Scale" settings that the "Color-Shaded Parameter over Topography" provides!

In case any of this is incredibly confusing, I'd be happy to demonstrate in Mcv!

-Mike

[mhiley]

TomW just expertly pointed out to me that when you do a "Color-Shaded Parameter as Topography" you also get a "Vertical Range" setting in the "Layer Controls" tab, which is separate from the "View -> Viewpoint -> Vertical Scale" settings. The "Vertical Range" then just gets mapped to the top and bottom limits of the "Vertical Scale".

When Tom and I tried to "invert" things via this "Vertical Range" setting, it initially hosed things up on his Windows-something machine, but I tried on my Mac and am able to successfully invert the display as desired.

So, I think this actually takes care of most of the issues in my original post. You can even get correctly labeled upper and lower limits by using the "Vertical Scale" settings (and checking "View -> Show -> Display Scales"). The one remaining issue that stands out to me is the text label on the vertical scale needs to be customizable (currently it is fixed as "Altitude(some length unit)").

-Mike

[bobc]

Hi Mike -

That is correct, you would use the Vertical Range option when working with the 'Color-Shaded Parameter As Topography' display type.

I seem to be having trouble using the display type of "Color-Shaded Parameter As Topography" with satellite data. If I display a loop of 5 images with this display type, some of the images have trouble near the edges, where some data shoots way above/below where it should be, and in other time steps there are only a few spikes of data displayed. Also, I am seeing a problem where I can only change the vertical range once. Are you seeing these problems? I do not see any of these issues when working with model data using this display type.

As for changing the text label for the vertical scale of the wireframe box, I will write up an inquiry for this. The IDV did work recently that allows you to change the labeling along the Latitude/Longitude axes, but not the vertical axis.

Thanks!
Bob Carp

[mhiley]

Hi Mike -

That is correct, you would use the Vertical Range option when working with the 'Color-Shaded Parameter As Topography' display type.

I seem to be having trouble using the display type of "Color-Shaded Parameter As Topography" with satellite data. If I display a loop of 5 images with this display type, some of the images have trouble near the edges, where some data shoots way above/below where it should be, and in other time steps there are only a few spikes of data displayed. Also, I am seeing a problem where I can only change the vertical range once. Are you seeing these problems? I do not see any of these issues when working with model data using this display type.

I don't have any problem changing the vertical range more than once with my netCDF file, but I haven't tested with other data sources. And I have noticed the display can go underground depending on your choice of "vertical range" (and above the wireframe box), which is understandable... but from your description I think you have found a separate issue?

As for changing the text label for the vertical scale of the wireframe box, I will write up an inquiry for this. The IDV did work recently that allows you to change the labeling along the Latitude/Longitude axes, but not the vertical axis.

Thanks Bob!

-Mike

[bobc]

Hi Mike -

I think this is a separate issue. I was using remote satellite data from adde.ucar.edu/RTIMAGES with the 'GE-WV - GOES -East 6.5 um IR (Water Vapor)' image type. I will do some more testing with different data types and write up an inquiry for this as well.

Thanks -
Bob