Re: [ferret_users] Adding a units label to the time stamp

[mick spillane <mick.spillane@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi Bill,
Ideally one would like to append the string " UTC" to the symbol holding 
the text for the date/time string. I had no luck doing this - Ferret had 
an issue with the semicolons in that string. However the following is a 
less elegant method that seems to work.
Hope it helps,
Mick

If you do a for example a "shade/l=3 v" in my demo below, followed by a 
"ppl listsym" you find that the text of the date/time string resides in 
LAB4, the fourth PPL label. So by repositioning this label, with RIGHT 
justification at some suitable position and adding a new label " UTC" 
with LEFT justification at the same position, the alignment problem 
should be solved. Here's the demo

! set up a demo x,y,t variable
def axis/x=1:10:1 xax ; def axis/y=1:8:1 yax
def axis/t="1-jan-2007:12:00":"5-jan-2007:12:00":1/units=days tax
def grid/x=xax/y=yax/t=tax grd
let/title="Test Function" v=x[g=grd]+y[g=grd]+t[g=grd]
shade/set v[l=3]
! adjust the date/time label(#4) to a position of your choosing ...
ppl labs/nouser 4,2.5,6.3,1,0,0.1
! ... add a units label as #5...
ppl labs/nouser 5,2.5,6.3,-1,0,0.1,@sr UTC
! ... then plot up the result
ppl shade


Gustafson, William I wrote:
> Dear Ferreters,
>
> Is there a way to modify the time label in the top-left corner of 
> Ferret plots? Maybe with a PPL command? Specifically, I want to add 
> UTC to the time so it is clear what time zone the plot is for.
>
> The “easy” way to do this is just to output a string at the correct 
> location. However, I am scripting up plots for automated weather 
> forecasts (http://science.arm.gov/clasic/forecasts.php) 
> <http://science.arm.gov/clasic/forecasts.php%29> and for some reason, 
> with the script I am using, the first time a plot is made in each 
> Ferret session the labels are offset downward a little bit. Subsequent 
> plots have the titles plotted up a little higher. So, I cannot use the 
> same script to place the “UTC” label at the right of the time 
> consistently.
>
> Thanks,
> Bill
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> /William I. Gustafson Jr.
> /Atmospheric Science and Global Change Division
> Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
> 3200 Q Ave., MSIN K9-30
> Richland, WA 99352
> (509)372-6110