# GRDVECTOR

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
EXAMPLES
SEE ALSO

## NAME

| grdvector − Plot vector fields from grdfiles

## SYNOPSIS

| grdvector compx.grd compy.grd −Jparameters [ −A ] [ −B[p|s]parameters ] [ −Ccptfile ] [ −E ] [ −Gfill] [ −Ixinc[unit][=|+][/yinc[unit][=|+]] ] [ −K ] [ −N ] [ −O ] [ −P ] [ −Qparameters ] [ −Rwest/east/south/north[r] ] [ −S[l]scale ] [ −T ] [ −U[/dx/dy/][label] ] [ −V ] [ −Wcontourpen ] [ −X[a|c|r][x-shift[u]] ] [ −Y[a|c|r][y-shift[u]] ] [ −Z ] [ −ccopies ] [ −f[i|o]colinfo ]

## DESCRIPTION

| grdvector reads two 2-D gridded files which represents the x- and y-components of a vector field and produces a vector field plot by drawing vectors with orientation and length according to the information in the files. Alternatively, polar coordinate components may be used (r, theta). grdvector is basically a short-hand for using 2 calls to grd2xyz and pasting the output through psxy −SV.

| compx.grd

| Contains the x-component of the vector field.

| compy.grd

| Contains the y-component of the vector field.

| −J |  | Selects the map projection. Scale is UNIT/degree, 1:xxxxx, or width in UNIT (upper case modifier). UNIT is cm, inch, or m, depending on the MEASURE_UNIT setting in .gmtdefaults4, but this can be overridden on the command line by appending c, i, or m to the scale/width value. For map height, max dimension, or min dimension, append h, +, or - to the width, respectively.

| More details can be found in the psbasemap man pages. CYLINDRICAL PROJECTIONS: −Jclon0/lat0/scale (Cassini) −Jjlon0/scale (Miller) −Jmscale (Mercator - Greenwich and Equator as origin) −Jmlon0/lat0/scale (Mercator - Give meridian and standard parallel) −Joalon0/lat0/azimuth/scale (Oblique Mercator - point and azimuth) −Joblon0/lat0/lon1/lat1/scale (Oblique Mercator - two points) −Joclon0/lat0/lonp/latp/scale (Oblique Mercator - point and pole) −Jqlon0/scale (Equidistant Cylindrical Projection (Plate Carree)) −Jtlon0/scale (TM - Transverse Mercator, with Equator as y = 0) −Jtlon0/lat0/scale (TM - Transverse Mercator, set origin) −Juzone/scale (UTM - Universal Transverse Mercator) −Jylon0/lats/scale (Basic Cylindrical Projection) AZIMUTHAL PROJECTIONS: −Jalon0/lat0/scale (Lambert) −Jelon0/lat0/scale (Equidistant) −Jflon0/lat0/horizon/scale (Gnomonic) −Jglon0/lat0/scale (Orthographic) −Jslon0/lat0/[slat/]scale (General Stereographic) CONIC PROJECTIONS: −Jblon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Albers) −Jdlon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Equidistant) −Jllon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Lambert) MISCELLANEOUS PROJECTIONS: −Jhlon0/scale (Hammer) −Jilon0/scale (Sinusoidal) −Jk[f|s]lon0/scale (Eckert IV (f) and VI (s)) −Jnlon0/scale (Robinson) −Jrlon0/scale (Winkel Tripel) −Jvlon0/scale (Van der Grinten) −Jwlon0/scale (Mollweide) NON-GEOGRAPHICAL PROJECTIONS: −Jp[a]scale[/origin][r|z] (Polar coordinates (theta,r)) −Jxx-scale[d|l|ppow|t|T][/y-scale[d|l|ppow|t|T]] (Linear, log, and power scaling)

## OPTIONS

| No space between the option flag and the associated arguments.

| −A |  | Means grdfiles have polar (r, theta) components instead of Cartesian (x, y).
| −B |  | Sets map boundary annotation and tickmark intervals; see the psbasemap man page for all the details.
| −C |  | Use cptfile to assign colors based on vector length.
| −E |  | Center vectors on grid nodes [Default draws from grid node].
| −G |  | Sets color or shade for vector interiors [Default is no fill]. Specify the grey shade (0−255) or color (r/g/b, each in range 0−255; h-s-v, ranges 0−360, 0−1, 0−1; or c/m/y/k, each in range 0−100%; or valid color name). Alternatively, specify −Gpdpi/pattern, where pattern gives the number of the built-in pattern (1-90) or the name of a Sun 1-, 8-, or 24-bit raster file. The dpi sets the resolution of the image. For 1-bit rasters: use −GP for inverse video, or append :Fcolor[B[color]] to specify fore- and background colors (use color = - for transparency). See GMT Cookbook & Technical Reference Appendix E for information on individual patterns.
| −I |  | Only plot vectors at nodes every x_inc, y_inc apart (must be multiples of original grid spacing). Append m for minutes or c for seconds. [Default plots every node].
| −K |  | More PostScript code will be appended later [Default terminates the plot system].
| −N |  | Do NOT clip vectors at map boundaries [Default will clip].
| −O |  | Selects Overlay plot mode [Default initializes a new plot system].
| −P |  | Selects Portrait plotting mode [GMT Default is Landscape, see gmtdefaults to change this].
| −Q |  | Select vector plot [Default is stick-plot]. Optionally, specify parameters which are arrowwidth/headlength/headwidth [Default is 0.075c/0.3c/0.25c (or 0.03i/0.12i/0.1i)]. Append nsize which will cause vectors shorter than size to have their appearance scaled by length/size.
| −R |  | xmin, xmax, ymin, and ymax specify the Region of interest. For geographic regions, these limits correspond to west, east, south, and north and you may specify them in decimal degrees or in [+-]dd:mm[:ss.xxx][W|E|S|N] format. Append r if lower left and upper right map coordinates are given instead of wesn. The two shorthands −Rg −Rd stand for global domain (0/360 or -180/+180 in longitude respectively, with -90/+90 in latitude). For calendar time coordinates you may either give relative time (relative to the selected TIME_EPOCH and in the selected TIME_UNIT; append t to −JX|x), or absolute time of the form [date]T[clock] (append T to −JX|x). At least one of date and clock must be present; the T is always required. The date string must be of the form [-]yyyy[-mm[-dd]] (Gregorian calendar) or yyyy[-Www[-d]] (ISO week calendar), while the clock string must be of the form hh:mm:ss[.xxx]. The use of delimiters and their type and positions must be as indicated (however, input/output and plotting formats are flexible). Specify a subset of the grid.
| −S |  | Sets scale for vector length in data units per distance measurement unit [1]. Append c, i, m, p to indicate the measurement unit (cm, inch, m, point). Prepend l to indicate a fixed length for all vectors.
| −T |  | Means azimuth should be converted to angles based on the selected map projection.
| −U |  | Draw Unix System time stamp on plot. User may specify where the lower left corner of the stamp should fall on the page relative to lower left corner of plot. Optionally, append a label, or c (which will plot the command string.). The GMT parameters UNIX_TIME and UNIX_TIME_POS can affect the appearance; see the gmtdefaults man page for details.
| −V |  | Selects verbose mode, which will send progress reports to stderr [Default runs "silently"].
| −W |  | Set pen attributes used for vector outlines [Default: width = 1, color = black, texture = solid]. pen is a comma delimetered list of width, color and texture, each of which is optional. width can be indicated as a measure (points, centimeters, inches) or as faint, thin[ner|nest], thick[er|est], fat[ter|test], or obese. color specifies a grey shade (0−255) or color (r/g/b, each in range 0−255; h-s-v, ranges 0−360, 0−1, 0−1; or c/m/y/k, each in range 0−100%; or valid color name). texture is a combination of dashes ‘-’ and dots ‘.’.
| −X −Y |  | Shift plot origin relative to the current origin by (x-shift,y-shift) and optionally append the length unit (c, i, m, p). You can prepend a to shift the origin back to the original position after plotting, or prepend r [Default] to reset the current origin to the new location. If −O is used then the default (x-shift,y-shift) is (0,0), otherwise it is (r1i, r1i) or (r2.5c, r2.5c). Alternatively, give c to align the center coordinate (x or y) of the plot with the center of the page based on current page size.
| −Z |  | Means the angles provided are azimuths rather than direction (requires −A).
| −c |  | Specifies the number of plot copies. [Default is 1].
| −f |  | Special formatting of input and output columns (time or geographical data). Specify i(nput) or o(utput) [Default is both input and output]. Give one or more columns (or column ranges) separated by commas. Append T (Absolute calendar time), t (time relative to chosen TIME_EPOCH), x (longitude), y (latitude), or f (floating point) to each column or column range item. Shorthand −f[i|o]g means −f[i|o]0x,1y (geographic coordinates).

## EXAMPLES

| To draw the vector field given by the files r.grd and theta.grd on a linear plot with scale 5 cm per data unit, using vector rather than stick plot, and scale vector magnitudes so that 10 units equal 1 inch, run grdvector r.grd theta.grd −Jx5c −A −Q −S10i > gradient.ps

## SEE ALSO

| GMT(l), grdcontour(l), psxy(l)