.. _firstSteps:

Fist-Steps
==========


This chapter offers a quick overview of the main package capabilities:
To read a sounding from a txt file and create a quick SkewT diagram.


Fist steps using SkewTplus
--------------------------

From now on, it's assumed that the package is installed and the current working
directory is the *examples* one, included in this package.

To read a sounding from a txt file and create a quick plot using the default
parameters we only have to do::

    from SkewTplus.sounding import Sounding
    
    #Load the sounding data
    mySounding = sounding("./exampleSounding.txt")
    mySounding.quickPlot()
        
The resulting plot will look like this:
        
.. image:: ../img/soundingQuickView.png

Now we can do the same thing, but with more control over the Figure:: 

    # Import the new figure class
    from SkewTplus.skewT import figure
    
    from SkewTplus.sounding import sounding
    
    
    #Load the sounding data
    mySounding = sounding("./exampleSounding.txt")
    
    # Create a Figure Manager 
    mySkewT_Figure = figure()
    
    # Add an Skew-T axes to the Figure
    mySkewT_Axes = mySkewT_Figure.add_subplot(111, projection='skewx')
    
    
    # Extract the data from the Sounding
    pressure = mySounding.soundingdata['pres']
    temperature =  mySounding.soundingdata['temp']
    dewPointTemperature = mySounding.soundingdata['dwpt']
    
    # Add a profile to the Skew-T diagram
    #  method=0 -> Most unstable parcel
    #  diagnostics -> add a text box in the Figure with the parcel analysis results
    mySkewT_Axes.addProfile(pressure,temperature, dewPointTemperature ,
                                hPa=True, celsius=True, method=0, diagnostics=True)
     
    # Show the figure
    mySkewT_Figure.show()

.. image:: ../img/soundingPlot.png

Lets now complicate the things a little bit and show one of the new capabilities
of the package. Let suppose that we want to compare two soundings, with the
parcel analysis, and plot them side to side::

    #Load the sounding data
    mySounding1 = sounding("./bna_day1.txt")
    mySounding2 = sounding("./bna_day2.txt")
    
    # Create a Figure Manager with a suitable size for both plots
    mySkewT_Figure = figure(figsize=(9,5))
    
    # Now we want to create two axes side to side
    
    # Add the first Skew-T axes to the Figure
    mySkewT_Axes1 = mySkewT_Figure.add_subplot(121, projection='skewx',tmin=-40)
    
    
    # Extract the data from the Sounding 
    pressure = mySounding1['pres']
    temperature =  mySounding1['temp']
    dewPointTemperature = mySounding1['dwpt']
    
    # Add a profile to the Skew-T diagram
    mySkewT_Axes1.addProfile(pressure,temperature, dewPointTemperature ,
                            hPa=True, celsius=True, method=0, diagnostics=False)
    
    
    mySkewT_Axes1.set_title("Day 1 Sounding")
     
    # Add the second Skew-T axes to the Figure
    mySkewT_Axes2 = mySkewT_Figure.add_subplot(122, projection='skewx',tmin=-40)
    
    # Extract the data from the Sounding 
    pressure = mySounding2['pres']
    temperature =  mySounding2['temp']
    dewPointTemperature = mySounding2['dwpt']
    
    # Add a profile to the Skew-T diagram
    mySkewT_Axes2.addProfile(pressure,temperature, dewPointTemperature ,
                            hPa=True, celsius=True, method=0, diagnostics=False)
    
    mySkewT_Axes2.set_title("Day 2 Sounding") 
    
    # Show the figure
    mySkewT_Figure.show_plot()

.. image:: ../img/twoSoundingsPlots.png

The different sounding sources supported to initialize the 
:py:class:`~SkewTplus.sounding.sounding` class are described
in greater detail in the next chapter:
:ref:`soundingInitialization`