NAME

       voaAreaPlot - Plot VOACAP Area Data Files

SYNOPSIS

       voaAreaPlot [options] file_name

DESCRIPTION

       voaAreaPlot  A  python script used to graphically display the contents of output files produced by VOACAP
       'area' calculations. the 'file_name parameter defines the path to a .voa or .vgz file.  If a .voa file is
       specified, the corresponding output files (e.g. '.vg1') must be located in the same directory.

OPTIONS

       --version
              Display the version number and exit.

       -c, --contours
              Plot contours on the map.

       -d DATATYPE, --datatype=DATATYPE
              An integer number representing the data type (MUF, REL or SNR) to plot. Valid values  of  DATATYPE
              are  1  (MUF),  2  (REL),  3 (SNR) 4 (SNRxx), 5 (SDBW) and 6 (SDBW - formatted as S-Meter values).
              Default value is 1 (MUF)

       --filled-contour
              Creates a filled contour plot.

       -h, --help
              Print a help message and exit.

       -i, --meridian
              Plot meridians (lines of constant latitude) on the map..

       -k, --background
              Specify the colour of the background. Any legal HTML color  specification  is  supported  e.g  '-k
              red', '-k #eeefff', (default = white)

       -l, --parallels (lines of constant longitude) on the map.
              Plot parallels.

       -m COLOURMAP, --cmap=COLOURMAP
              COLOURMAP  specifies  the  Colour  map  used  by  the  plot.   Valid values are; 'autumn', 'bone',
              'cool','copper', 'gray', 'hot', 'hsv', 'jet', 'pink', 'spring', 'summer', 'winter'.  Default value
              is 'jet'

       -n POI_FILE, --interest=POI_FILE
              POI_FILE is a text file with points of interest to plot  on  the  map.   The  file  is  comma  (,)
              delimited  with  a  single  point  of  interest  on  each  line  in the form "longitude, latitude,
              text_name". The file format is the same as Garmin's POI csv files.  A sample file would look like;
              36.599998, 28.366667, Tabuk
              39.183334, 21.700001, Jeddah
              42.799999, 18.299999, Khamis Mushait
              40.549999, 21.483334, Taif
              50.150002, 26.266666, Dahran

       -p PROJECTION, --projection=PROJECTION
              PROJECTION specifies the map projection.  Valid values are 'cyl' (Equidistant Cylindrical), 'mill'
              (Miller Cylindrical), gall' (Gall Stereographic), 'robin' (Robinson), 'vandg' (van  der  Grinten),
              'sinu'  (Sinusoidal),  'mbtfpq'  (McBryde-Thomas  Flat  Polar Quartic), 'eck4' (Eckert IV), 'kav7'
              (Kavrayskiy VII), 'moll' (Mollweide), 'hammer' (Hammer).

       -r RESOLUTION, --resolution=RESOLUTION
              A single character representing resolution of the final  plot.   RESOLUTION  may  be  one  of  'c'
              (crude), 'l' (low), 'i' (intermediate), 'h' (high), 'f' (full)

       -t, --terminator
              Displays the night/day regions on the map.

       -v VG_FILES, --vg_files=VG_FILES
              VG_FILES  specifies  which  .vg  files to plot, e.g. '-v 1,3,5,6' or use '-v a' to print all plots
              associated with the input file.  Default is 1.

       -z TIMEZONE, --timezone=TIMEZONE
              Specify a timezone.  This option adjusts the (UTC) time specified in the  datafile  to  the  users
              local time.

EXAMPLES

       voaAreaPlot aDataFile.voa
              Plots the contents of the file aDataFile.voa using default settings.

       voaAreaPlot aZipArchive.vgz
              Plots the contents of the .voa file found in the .vgz archive using the default settings.

       voaAreaPlot -r i -p mill aDataFile.voa
              Plots an intermediate resolution miller projection.

       voaAreaPlot -m autumn -p ortho aDataFile.voa
              Plots an orthographic projection using the colour map 'autumn'.

ENVIRONMENT

       voaAreaPlot  does  not  require  or  make  use of any environmental variables.   The program requires the
       matlibplot library and basemap toolkit to run.

BUGS

       No major bugs are known. Please submit .voa and .vg* files when submitting bug reports.

AUTHOR

       The application and and man page was written by James Watson (M0DNS / HZ1JW) <jimwatson at mac dot com>

ACKNOLEDGMENTS

       I'm indebted to the authors of matplotlib and the basemap toolkit which make plotting complex  data  sets
       straight forward and fun :-) Also to Lowell and Alex for beta testing and support.

Linux                                               Nov 2009                                      voaAreaPlot(1)