voaAreaPlot(1)

📦 version 0.30.1, in debian trixie, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

✨ voaAreaPlot — the manual page, but make it cute ✨

okay bestie, gather round 💖 this is the manual for voaAreaPlot, from the User Manuals section of your friendly neighbourhood Unix box. It plots VOACAP area data files, and honestly? it's giving data-viz main character energy. 🦋

🌸 NAME 🌸

voaAreaPlot — Plot VOACAP Area Data Files. That's it, that's the whole vibe. 📊

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

voaAreaPlot [options] file_name

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

So voaAreaPlot is a python script that graphically displays what's inside the output files that VOACAP's 'area' calculations spit out. Like, it takes those numbers and makes them pretty. ✨

The file_name parameter is the path to a .voa or .vgz file — that's the thing you're plotting, periodt.

Heads up bestie: if you hand it a .voa file, the corresponding output files (think .vg1) must live in the same directory. No exceptions, no cap. 🙈

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • --version — shows you the version number and then dips out (exits). 👋
  • -c, --contours — plots contours on the map. lines of vibes. 🌈
  • -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. filled in, like your brows. 💅
  • -h, --help — prints a help message and exits. the classic. 🎀
  • -i, --meridian — plots meridians (lines of constant latitude) on the map. (yes, the original really says "constant latitude" for meridians — we keep it exactly as written, bestie 🫡).
  • -k, --background — specifies 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. — plots parallels. that's the whole thing, no notes. 🌸
  • -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) — yes the stray quote is in the original too, we're not fixing it, we're respecting it 🙈 — 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). pick your pixel princess moment. 👑
  • -t, --terminator — displays the night/day regions on the map. day/night, the original duality. 🌞🌚
  • -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 user's local time. ⏰

🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

voaAreaPlot aDataFile.voa

Plots the contents of the file aDataFile.voa using default settings. effortless, iconic.

voaAreaPlot aZipArchive.vgz

Plots the contents of the .voa file found in the .vgz archive using the default settings. unzipped and unbothered. 💖

voaAreaPlot -r i -p mill aDataFile.voa

Plots an intermediate resolution miller projection. mid-res, but make it Miller. 🌸

voaAreaPlot -m autumn -p ortho aDataFile.voa

Plots an orthographic projection using the colour map autumn. fall girlie behaviour. 🍂

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

voaAreaPlot does not require or make use of any environmental variables. It's low maintenance like that. 🫶

The program does require the matlibplot library and basemap toolkit to run. (spelled exactly like that in the original, bestie — we keep it.) 😭

💀 BUGS 💀

No major bugs are known. Please submit .voa and .vg* files when submitting bug reports. bring receipts, always. 🧾✨

👑 AUTHOR 👑

The application and and man page was written by James Watson (M0DNS / HZ1JW) <jimwatson at mac dot com> — yes, the double "and and" is canon, we love them for it. 💜

🎀 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. shoutout to the whole plotting squad fr fr. 🫶🌸

and that's the whole page, bestie — this one lives in the Linux section, dated Nov 2009. old school but still slaying. 💅✨

📦 where this page comes from