CLI_plot

Plotting functionality

Allows the user to create a variety of plots to visualize variable data.

Table of Contents

• Syntax
• Arguments
• Example
• Plotting Methods

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Syntax

nes plot -i <input_file.nc> -v <variable> -l <level> -t <time_step> -m <method> -c <colormap> --animation_method <animation_method> --save --scale <scale> --threshold <threshold> --percentile_clip LOWER UPPER

Arguments

• -i, --input_file (required): Path to the input NetCDF file.
• -v, --variable (required): Name of the variable to plot, must match its format as it is found in the NetCDF.
• -l, --level: Vertical level index to plot - (default: 0).
• -t, --time_step: Time step index to plot - ignored when method is animation (default: 0).
• -m, --method: Plotting method - either "colormesh", "contour", "surface", "histogram" or "animation" (default: colormesh).
• --animation_method: Plotting method to use to generate animation - either "contour" or "colormesh" (default: colormesh).
• -c, --cmap: Colormap to use for plotting, all Matplotlib colormaps are accepted - a list of available maps is available here (default: viridis)
• --save: Whether to save the plot or display it using Matplotlib's interactive viewer - ignored for method "animation", as it is saved by default.
• --scale: Type of scale to apply to the data - either "linear", "log" or "power" (default: "linear")
• --threshold: Threshold value below which data is discarded (default: 0.0)
• --percentile_clip: Clip data to the specified percentiles (default: no explicit percentile clipping)

Example

nes plot -i pm2p5oc_2025051800.nc -v pm2p5oc -l 0 -t 0 --method colormesh --scale power --cmap plasma --threshold 1e-12 --percentile_clip 5 95 --save

Plotting Methods

colormesh

Pseudocolor plot with a non-regular rectangular grid.

nes plot -i pm2p5oc_2025051800.nc -v pm2p5oc --method colormesh

contour

Filled contour plot.

nes plot -i pm2p5oc_2025051800.nc -v pm2p5oc --method contour

histogram

Bar plot showing data frequency for value range.

nes plot -i pm2p5oc_2025051800.nc -v pm2p5oc --method histogram

animation

Aggregation of all time steps into an .mp4 file - available for colormesh and contour.

nes plot -i pm2p5oc_2025051800.nc -v pm2p5oc --method animation