How to Visualize station daily rainfall data using CDT

Introduction

CDT is a free and open-source R package. It was developed as part of the Enhancing National Climate Services (ENACTS) initiative by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), part of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. 

We can use CDT to work with climate data such as visualize data in charts and maps.

Following are the steps to visualize data in CDT.

Step 1 - Open the data file in CDT

We have to convert our data file into CDT data file to work with CDT. That file should be .csv file format.

See this link below.

Step 2 - Convert the data file into CDT file format

There is a file format to work with CDT. Therefore we have to convert our station data file into CDT file format. 

Use the following path to convert the file to CDT format.

    -  Data Preparation → Format CDT input Station Data.

Make the following settings in the dialog box that appears.
  • Choose "Daily Data" and set date range by clicking "Set Date Range". 


  • Choose "single file" and click "Input file settings".
  • Make following settings in the appeared dialog box.


                    1- Select station data file
                    2- Mark this if your data file includes elevation data.
                    3- Select Data column number as "1 column" and input the correct column index of your data file.

  • Then give the path to save CDT file and then click Run button. 


Step 3 -  Plot CDT station Data

  • Open the file which was converted as "Step 1" (Select FALSE in "First row as header").
  • Go to the following path.


1. Visualizing station data in charts

We can visualize stations' data in bar plots and line plots in CDT as follows.



  • Do following steps to visualize data in charts
                    1- Select 'Daily Data" as Time step. Then select the CDT file.
                    2- Select station, plot type and then click options to make the chart as you need. Then click "PLOT" to see the chart. 
  • You can download charts as images by following path.
                File → Save image as...



2. Visualizing station data in a country map

We can show our data on maps as follows.

  • Download the map (.shp file)





                1- Select region and country
                2- Select level subdivisions. If you want a map which visualizing data district-wise, you can select "1". Also you can visualize data in more divisions by selecting "2".
                3- Give the path to save .shp file.

  • Add shape file to map
                Visualization → Plot CDT station data



           - Click "Layers" tab.
           - Choose downloaded shape file.
           - Again go to "Plot CDT Station Data" tab.



                        1- Select time step and CDT file
                        2- Select the date which you want to visualize data in the map. Then click "PLOT". You can change map appearance and add more things to the map by clicking "Options"

  • You can download charts as images by following path.
                File → Save image as...


Extra Information.

How to find the elevation of a place?


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to open a data file in CDT

Image
  The Climate Data Tool The Climate Data Tool (CDT) is a free, open source R package created specifically for national meteorological services. CDT allows national meteorological agencies to: Organize millions of station observations Assess data availability and highlight gaps in the observational record Assess and correct data-quality issues Combine station observations with proxies such as satellite rainfall and climate model reanalysis products in order to fill temporal and spatial gaps in the observational record Evaluate gridded products, including satellite, reanalysis and combined data products Extract data from gridded products, including satellite, reanalysis and combined data products, at any point, for selected a box, for any administrative boundary Analyze and visualize station and gridded dataset     To open files  (.csv / .txt)   in CDT      File should be in this format              Ex: Time Step - Daily                ID – Longitude – Latitude – Elevation – Year - Month
Read more

Extracting Data points using Get Data Graph Digitizer

Image
GetData Graph Digitizer is open source software for digitizing graphs and plots. It is often necessary to obtain original (x,y) data from graphs, e.g. from scanned scientific plots, when data values are not available. GetData Graph Digitizer allows to easily get the numbers in such cases. Digitizing is a four step process: open a graph, set the scale (coordinate system), digitize (automatically or manually), and copy data to the clipboard, or export to TXT, XLS, XML, DXF or EPS file. Main features of GetData Graph Digitizer are: supported graphics formats are TIFF, JPEG, BMP and PCX; two algorithms for automatic digitizing; convenient manual digitizing; reorder tool for easy points reordering; save/open workspace, which allows to save the work and return to it later; obtained data can be copied to the clipboard; export to the formats: TXT (text file), XLS (MS Excel), XML, DXF (AutoCAD) and EPS (PostScript). More details are available at:  http://getdata-graph-digi
Read more