SkewTplus – Atmospheric Profile Plotting and Diagnostics

The SkewTplus package provides tools to easily read atmospheric sounding data from different formats (University of Wyoming and ARM) and create SkewT sounding plots along with parcel diagnostics (CAPE,CIN,etc.).

This package is based on the SkewT Python package developed by Thomas Chubb (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/SkewT/)

The main difference with the original SkewT package is that the vertical soundings plots are handled by a special class (SkewT). The new SkewT class extends the base matplolib’s Figure class with an interface similar to matplolib’s pyplot. It also allows to create Skew-T type plots in a simple way. This new class allows a complete control over the Figure properties like multiple plots (normal axis and Skew-T axis).

In addition, the thermodynamics module was improved. All the intensive computations were migrated to Cython and parallelized.

The SkewT Python package was a cornerstone of this project. We are grateful to all its collaborators.

Technology builds on technology

Documentation

The documentation is separated in two big branches. The User Reference and the Developer Reference. The user reference provides a quick overview of the most important features of the package. For more detailed and a comprehensive understanding of the package the reader must consult the Developer Reference.

Dependencies

The SkewTplus package need the following dependencies

  • matplotlib
  • numpy
  • cython (optional)
  • netCDF4
  • six
  • future (python2)
  • hdf4
  • libgcc >=5
  • requests

For running the WRF data example:

  • Basemap

Installing SkewTplus

IMPORTANT - OSX installation

Before installing the package, be sure that Numpy is installed. Then, install the apple’s Xcode application by running:

xcode-select --install

Before running the pip or the setup commands execute:

export CC=clang ; export CXX=clang

Then you can continue with any of the following installation procedures.

Nevertheless pip is highly recommended.

PIP install

To install the package using pip the numpy package must be already installed. If is not installed, you can install it by running:

pip install numpy

After the numpy package was installed, to install the SkewTplus package run:

pip install SkewTplus

Install from source

The latest version can be installed manually by downloading the sources from https://github.com/aperezhortal/SkewTplus

To install the package manually, the numpy package must be already installed. If is not installed, you can install it by running:

pip install numpy

Then, you can install the SkewTplus package executing:

python setup.py install

If you want to put it somewhere different than your system files, you can do:

python setup.py install --prefix=/path/to/local/dir

IMPORTANT: If you install it using this way, all the dependencies need to be already installed!

Conda install - Only available linux users

If you are using an anaconda environment, to install the package execute:

conda install -c andresperezcba skewtplus

Contributions

SkewTplus is an open source software project. Contributions to the package are welcomed from all users. Feel free to suggest enhancements or report bugs by opening an issue in the github project page:

https://github.com/aperezhortal/SkewTplus/issues

Thanks for using the SkewTplus package, for any feedback feel free to write to andresperezcba AT gmail DOT com

Code

The latest source code can be obtained with the command:

git clone https://github.com/aperezhortal/SkewTplus.git

If you are planning on making changes that you would like included in SkewTplus, forking the repository is highly recommended.