STNPLOT

Plots stations on a navigated frame.

Format

STNPLOT id1 . . idN [keywords]

Parameters

id1 . . idN

3- to 5-character IDs or 5-digit ID numbers of stations to plot

Search Keywords

CO=	plot stations in this country; use the CCODE command to list valid 2-letter country codes
LAT=	slat nlat	plot stations in this latitude range, where slat and nlat are the southern and northern latitude limits, respectively (def=frame latitude extents)
LON=	elon wlon	plot stations in this longitude range, where elon and wlon are the eastern and western longitude limits, respectively (def=frame longitude extents)
MATch=	'string'	plot stations with an exact match of the specified string, including any spaces
ST=	plot stations in this state; use its 2-letter state P.O. abbreviation
TYPe=	type1 . . typeN	station types to plot; valid entries are the following single letters or their multi-letter versions: M or METAR, A or SAO, S or SYNOPTIC, R or RAOB, T or TAF or TERMFCST, W or WSFO, N or NEXRAD, C or CMAN, V or VOR, E or NAMMOS or ETAMOS, F or NGMMOS or FOUS14, G or GFSMOS; (default=ALL if id1 . . idN is specified, otherwise default=METAR SYNOPTIC RAOB)
USERid=	plot stations matching the USERID field in the STNDB.USER and STNDB.SITE files; see the Remarks

Output Keywords

COLor=	c1 . . cN	graphics color level for each TYPE (default=3)
GRA=	graphics frame number to plot the stations (default=current)
LSIze=	plot height, in pixels, of stations; the range is 1-50 (default=6 for FORMAT=ID,IDN or NAME; default=2 for FORMAT=POINT)
NAV=	frame to use for navigation; specify a frame number or C for current frame (default=C)
FORmat=	ID	plot the 3- to 5-character ID at each station location; see the Remarks (default)
	IDN	plot the 5-digit ID number at each station location
	NAME	plot the station name at each station location
	POINT	plot a point at each station location

Remarks

STNPLOT plots stations on a navigated frame. There are no map-drawing keywords, so you must display an image or map on the frame before using STNPLOT.

Some stations do not have both a 3- to 5-character ID and a 5-digit ID number. If FORMAT=ID is specified then the ID is plotted for those stations that have an ID, and the IDN is plotted for those that don't. Likewise, if FORMAT=IDN is specified then the IDN is plotted for those stations that have an IDN, and the ID is plotted for those that don't.

STNPLOT uses the station database files STNDB.CORE, STNDB.SITE and STNDB.USER. The .CORE file is supplied with McIDAS-X and should not be modified. The .USER file overrides the .SITE file, which overrides the .CORE file. This order of precedence allows you or your site to change existing stations and/or add new stations in your .USER or .SITE file.

To create a .USER or .SITE file, first run a command similar to the following to create the file in the first writable MCPATH directory.

STNLIST KMSN FORM=USER DEV=T STNDB.USER A

The file contains one long line that defines the data for station KMSN. An equal sign (=) denotes the value of each of the 10 fields (IDN, ID, LATLON, ULATLON, ELE, UELE, ST, CO, NAME, and DATATYPE). Replace the values in the KMSN entry with those for your station and add lines as needed for additional stations. Entries do not have to include all ten fields. The required fields are LATLON and at least one of the following: ID, IDN, USERID. Other fields like CO, ST and NAME are useful but not required. Note that you must follow the one-entry-per-line format for all stations in your .USER and .SITE files. Line breaks are not permitted.

Three additional fields, USERID, COMMENT and VALID, may be optionally added to any station in your .USER and .SITE files. The USERID field is used to assign a unique identifier to your local stations. The COMMENT='comment1' . . 'commentN' field values are listed with the FORM=ALL keyword. The VALID field is used to enter a date range for which the station is valid. If you specify a date range that has passed (e.g., VALID=2000001 2000111), the station is no longer considered valid so will not be listed or plotted with commands S, STNLIST or STNPLOT. The VALID field is useful for leaving station information in your local file and thus providing an audit trail of changes and storing the information in case the station needs to be re-entered at a later date.

Examples

STNPLOT

This entry plots the 3- to 5-character ID at the location of all METAR, Synoptic, and RAOB stations on the current frame.

STNPLOT KORL KTLH

This entry plots the 4-character IDs for Orlando and Tallahassee, Florida at their locations on the current frame.

MAP USA
STNPLOT TYPE=RAOB CO=US FORMAT=IDN COLOR=5

These entries plot the 5-digit ID number at the location of all RAOB stations in the United States.

MAP FL
STNPLOT TYPE=C N COLOR=4 7

These entries plot the 5-character ID at the location of all CMAN stations and the 3-character ID at the location of all NEXRAD stations on a map of Florida. The CMAN stations are plotted in graphics color level 4 and the NEXRAD stations are plotted in graphics color level 7.

MAP DEF PRO=CONF LAT=-90 LON=0 SLAT=-60 SCALE=20
STNPLOT TYPE=S FORMAT=POINT LSIZE=3

These entries plot a point at the location of all Synoptic stations in Antarctica.