10/21/2020 Getting your hands-on Climate data: Visualize Climate data with Python

This lesson is still being designed and assembled (Pre-Alpha version)

 Getting your hands-on Climate data (../) 

(../02- (../04
cds/index.html) visua
R/ind

Visualize Climate data with Python

 Overview
Teaching: 0 min
Exercises: 0 min
Questions
Learn to visualize Climate data?
Objectives
Learn to combine Climate data with your own research topic

Quick visualization
In this section, we will learn to read the metadata and visualize the NetCDF file we just downloaded.

Make sure you have installed Python along with the additional packages required to read Climate data files as described in the
setup (../setup) instructions.

The file we downloaded from CDS should be in your Downloads folder; to check it out, open a Terminal (Git bash terminal on
windows) and type:

Bash

ls ~/Downloads/*.nc

For those of you who are not familiar with bash language:

the ~ symbol (a.k.a. tilde) is a shortcut for the home directory of a user;

*.nc means that we are looking for any files with a suffix .nc (NetCDF file).

Output

adaptor.mars.internal-1559329510.4428957-10429-22-1005b553-e70d-4366-aa63-1424db2df740.nc

Then rename this file to a more friendly filename (please note that to ease further investigation, we add the date in the
filename).

For instance, using bash :

Bash

mv ~/Downloads/adaptor.mars.internal-1559329510.4428957-10429-22-1005b553-e70d-4366-aa63-1424db2
df740.nc ~/Downloads/ERA5_REANALYSIS_precipitation_200306.nc

ls ~/Downloads/*.nc

Output

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ERA5_REANALYSIS_precipitation_200306.nc

Start Anaconda Navigator (https://docs.anaconda.com/anaconda/navigator/getting-started/#navigator-starting-navigator), then

select Environments:

Select the esm-python-analysis environment and either left-click on the triangle/arrow next to it and Open with Jupyter
Notebook, or go back to the Home tab and click on Launch to open your Jupyter Notebook :

Get metadata
Python

import xarray as xr

# the line above is necessary for getting

# your plot embedded within the notebook
%matplotlib inline

dset = xr.open_dataset("~/Downloads/ERA5_REANALYSIS_precipitation_200306.nc")
print(dset)

Printing dset returns ERA5_REANALYSIS_precipitation_200306.nc metadata:

Output

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<xarray.Dataset>
Dimensions: (latitude: 721, longitude: 1440, time: 1)
Coordinates:
* longitude (longitude) float32 0.0 0.25 0.5 0.75 ... 359.25 359.5 359.75
* latitude (latitude) float32 90.0 89.75 89.5 89.25 ... -89.5 -89.75 -90.0
* time (time) datetime64[ns] 2003-06-01
Data variables:
tp (time, latitude, longitude) float32 ...
Attributes:
Conventions: CF-1.6
history: 2019-05-31 19:05:13 GMT by grib_to_netcdf-2.10.0: /opt/ecmw...

We can see that our dset object is an xarray.Dataset , which when printed shows all the metadata associated with our
netCDF data file.

In this case, we are interested in the precipitation variable contained within that xarray Dataset:

Python

print(dset['tp'])

Output

<xarray.DataArray 'tp' (time: 1, latitude: 721, longitude: 1440)>

[1038240 values with dtype=float32]
Coordinates:
* longitude (longitude) float32 0.0 0.25 0.5 0.75 ... 359.25 359.5 359.75
* latitude (latitude) float32 90.0 89.75 89.5 89.25 ... -89.5 -89.75 -90.0
* time (time) datetime64[ns] 2003-06-01
Attributes:
units: m
long_name: Total precipitation

The total precipitation (https://confluence.ecmwf.int/display/CKB/ERA5+data+documentation) is in units of “metre of water per

day”.

Quick visualization
Python

dset['tp'].plot()

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We can change the colormap (https://matplotlib.org/users/colormaps.html) and adjust the maximum (remember the total
precipitation is in metre):

Python

dset['tp'].plot(cmap='jet', vmax=0.02)

We can see there is a band around the equator and areas especially in Asia and South America with a lot of rain. Let’s add
continents and a projection using cartopy:

Python

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

import cartopy.crs as ccrs

fig = plt.figure(figsize=[12,5])

# 111 means 1 row, 1 col and index 1

ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection=ccrs.PlateCarree(central_longitude=0))

dset['tp'].plot(ax=ax, vmax=0.02, cmap='jet',

transform=ccrs.PlateCarree())
ax.coastlines()

plt.show()

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At this stage, do not bother too much about the projection (https://scitools.org.uk/cartopy/docs/latest/crs/projections.html) e.g.
ccrs.PlateCarree . We will discuss it in-depth in a follow-up episode.

✏ Retrieve surface air temperature

From the same product type (ERA5 single levels Monthly means
(https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/cdsapp#!/dataset/reanalysis-era5-single-levels-monthly-means?tab=form)) select 2m
temperature. Make sure you rename your file to ERA5_REANALYSIS_air_temperature_200306.nc
Inspect the metadata of the new retrieved file
Visualize the 2m temperature with Python (using a similar script as for the total precipitation).

 Solution with Python 

 What is 2m temperature?

We selected ERA5 monthly averaged data on single levels from 1979 to present
(https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/cdsapp#!/dataset/reanalysis-era5-single-levels-monthly-means?tab=form) so we
expected to get surface variables only. In fact, we get all the variables on a single level and usually close to the surface.
Here 2m temperature is computed as the temperature at a reference height (2 metres). This corresponds to the surface air
temperature (https://ane4bf-datap1.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/wmod8_gcos/s3fs-
public/surface_temp_ecv_factsheet_201905.pdf?Yq5rPAs1YJ2iYVCutXWLnG_lTV.pRDb6).

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Change projection
It is very often convenient to visualize using a different projection than the original data:

Python

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

import cartopy.crs as ccrs

fig = plt.figure(figsize=[12,5])

# 111 means 1 row, 1 col and index 1

ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection = ccrs.Orthographic(central_longitude=20, central_latitude=
40))

dset['t2m'].plot(ax=ax, cmap='jet',
transform=ccrs.PlateCarree())
ax.coastlines()

plt.show()

CMIP5 monthly data on single levels

Let’s have a look at CMIP 5 climate data.

Retrieve precipitation
We will retrieve precipitation from CMIP5 monthly data on single levels
(https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/cdsapp#!/dataset/projections-cmip5-monthly-single-levels?tab=form).

As you can see that you have the choice between several models, experiments and ensemble members.

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 CMIP5 models

CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5) had the following objectives:
evaluate how realistic the models are in simulating the recent past,
provide projections of future climate change on two time scales, near term (out to about 2035) and long term (out to
2100 and beyond), and
understand some of the factors responsible for differences in model projections, including quantifying some key
feedbacks such as those involving clouds and the carbon cycle.

20 climate modeling groups from around the world participated to CMIP5. All the datasets are freely available from different
repositories. For more information look here (https://esgf-node.llnl.gov/projects/esgf-llnl/).

We will choose NorESM1-M (Norwegian Earth System Model 1 - medium resolution) based on the Norwegian Earth System
Model (https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/NorESM).

Please note that it is very common to analyze several models instead of one to run statistical analysis.

 CMIP5 Ensemble member

Many CMIP5 experiments, the so-called ensemble calculations, were calculated using several initial states, initialisation
methods or physics details. Ensemble calculations facilitate quantifying the variability of simulation data concerning a
single model.
In the CMIP5 project, ensemble members are named in the rip-nomenclature, r for realization, i for initialisation and p for
physics, followed by an integer, e.g. r1i1p1. For more information look at Experiments, ensembles, variable names and
other centralized properties (https://portal.enes.org/data/enes-model-data/cmip5/datastructure).

Select:

Model: NorESM1-M (NCC, Norway)

Experiment: historical

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Ensemble: r1i1p1
Period: 185001-200512

We rename the downloaded filename to pr_Amon_NorESM1-M_historical_r1i1p1_185001-200512.nc .

Let’s open this NetCDF file and check its metadata:

Python

dset = xr.open_dataset("~/Downloads/pr_Amon_NorESM1-M_historical_r1i1p1_185001-200512.nc")
print(dset)

Output

<xarray.Dataset>
Dimensions: (bnds: 2, lat: 96, lon: 144, time: 1872)
Coordinates:
* time (time) object 1850-01-16 12:00:00 ... 2005-12-16 12:00:00
* lat (lat) float64 -90.0 -88.11 -86.21 -84.32 ... 86.21 88.11 90.0
* lon (lon) float64 0.0 2.5 5.0 7.5 10.0 ... 350.0 352.5 355.0 357.5
Dimensions without coordinates: bnds
Data variables:
time_bnds (time, bnds) object ...
lat_bnds (lat, bnds) float64 ...
lon_bnds (lon, bnds) float64 ...
pr (time, lat, lon) float32 ...
Attributes:
institution: Norwegian Climate Centre
institute_id: NCC
experiment_id: historical
source: NorESM1-M 2011 atmosphere: CAM-Oslo (CAM4-Oslo-n...
model_id: NorESM1-M
forcing: GHG, SA, Oz, Sl, Vl, BC, OC
parent_experiment_id: piControl
parent_experiment_rip: r1i1p1
branch_time: 255135.0
contact: Please send any requests or bug reports to noresm...
initialization_method: 1
physics_version: 1
tracking_id: 5ccde64e-cfe8-47f6-9de8-9ea1621e7781
product: output
experiment: historical
frequency: mon
creation_date: 2011-06-01T05:45:35Z
history: 2011-06-01T05:45:35Z CMOR rewrote data to comply ...
Conventions: CF-1.4
project_id: CMIP5
table_id: Table Amon (27 April 2011) a5a1c518f52ae340313ba0...
title: NorESM1-M model output prepared for CMIP5 historical
parent_experiment: pre-industrial control
modeling_realm: atmos
realization: 1
cmor_version: 2.6.0

This file contains monthly averaged data from January 1850 to December 2005. In CMIP the variable name for precipitation
flux is called pr, so let’s look at the metadata:

Python

print(dset.pr)

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 Note
The notation dset.pr is equivalent to dset[‘pr’].

Output

<xarray.DataArray 'pr' (time: 1872, lat: 96, lon: 144)>

[25878528 values with dtype=float32]
Coordinates:
* time (time) object 1850-01-16 12:00:00 ... 2005-12-16 12:00:00
* lat (lat) float64 -90.0 -88.11 -86.21 -84.32 ... 84.32 86.21 88.11 90.0
* lon (lon) float64 0.0 2.5 5.0 7.5 10.0 ... 350.0 352.5 355.0 357.5
Attributes:
standard_name: precipitation_flux
long_name: Precipitation
comment: at surface; includes both liquid and solid phases from...
units: kg m-2 s-1
original_name: PRECT
cell_methods: time: mean
cell_measures: area: areacella
history: 2011-06-01T05:45:35Z altered by CMOR: Converted type f...
associated_files: baseURL: http://cmip-pcmdi.llnl.gov/CMIP5/dataLocation...

The unit is: kg m-2 s-1. We want to convert the units from kg m-2 s-1 to something that we are a little more familiar with like
mm day-1 or m day-1 (metre per day) that is what we had with ERA5.

To do this, consider that 1 kg of rain water spread over 1 m2 of surface is 1 mm in thickness and that there are 86400 seconds
in one day. Therefore, 1 kg m-2 s-1 = 86400 mm day-1 or 86.4 m day-1.

So we can go ahead and multiply that array by 86.4 and update the units attribute accordingly:

Python

dset.pr.data = dset.pr.data * 86.4

dset.pr.attrs['units'] = 'm/day'

Then we can select the data for June 2003 and plot the precipitation field:

Python

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

import cartopy.crs as ccrs

fig = plt.figure(figsize=[12,5])

# 111 means 1 row, 1 col and index 1

ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection=ccrs.PlateCarree(central_longitude=0))

dset['pr'].sel(time='200306').plot(ax=ax, cmap='jet',
transform=ccrs.PlateCarree())
ax.coastlines()

plt.show()

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To select June 2003, we used xarray select sel . This is a very powerful tool with which you can specify a particular value
you wish to select. You can also add a method such as nearest to select the closest point to a given value. You can even
select all the values inside a range (inclusive) with slice :

Python

dset['pr'].sel(time=slice('200306', '200406', 12))

This command first takes the month of June 2003, then jumps 12 months and takes the month of June 2004.

Output

<xarray.DataArray 'pr' (time: 2, lat: 96, lon: 144)>

array([[[2.114823e-05, 2.114823e-05, ..., 2.114823e-05, 2.114823e-05],
[3.787203e-05, 3.682408e-05, ..., 3.772908e-05, 3.680853e-05],
...,
[7.738324e-04, 8.255294e-04, ..., 7.871171e-04, 8.004216e-04],
[6.984189e-04, 6.986369e-04, ..., 6.984310e-04, 6.983504e-04]],

[[1.847185e-04, 1.847185e-04, ..., 1.847185e-04, 1.847185e-04],

[8.476275e-05, 8.299961e-05, ..., 9.207508e-05, 8.666257e-05],
...,
[4.763984e-04, 4.645830e-04, ..., 5.200990e-04, 4.929897e-04],
[5.676933e-04, 5.677207e-04, ..., 5.673288e-04, 5.674717e-04]]],
dtype=float32)
Coordinates:
* time (time) object 2003-06-16 00:00:00 2004-06-16 00:00:00
* lat (lat) float64 -90.0 -88.11 -86.21 -84.32 ... 84.32 86.21 88.11 90.0
* lon (lon) float64 0.0 2.5 5.0 7.5 10.0 ... 350.0 352.5 355.0 357.5
Attributes:
standard_name: precipitation_flux
long_name: Precipitation
comment: at surface; includes both liquid and solid phases from...
units: m day-1
original_name: PRECT
cell_methods: time: mean
cell_measures: area: areacella
history: 2011-06-01T05:45:35Z altered by CMOR: Converted type f...
associated_files: baseURL: http://cmip-pcmdi.llnl.gov/CMIP5/dataLocation...

See here (http://xarray.pydata.org/en/stable/indexing.html) for more information.

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 Remark

We selected one year (2003) and one month (June) from both ERA5 and CMIP5 but only data from re-analysis (ERA5)
corresponds to the actual month of June 2003. Data from the climate model (CMIP5 historical) is only “one realization” of a
month of June, typical of present day conditions, but it cannot be considered as the actual weather at that date. To be more
realistic, climate data has to be considered over a much longer period of time. For instance, we could easily compute (for
both ERA5 and CMIP5) the average of the month of June between 1988 and 2018 (spanning 30 years) to have a more
reliable results. However, as you (may) have noticed, the horizontal resolution of ERA5 (1/4 x 1/4 degrees) is much higher
than that of the CMIP data (about 2 x 2 degrees) and therefore there is much more variability/details in the re-analysis data
than with NorESM.

✏ Plot surface air temperature with CMIP5 (June 2003)

When searching for CMIP5 monthly data on single levels (https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/cdsapp#!/dataset/projections-

cmip5-monthly-single-levels?tab=form) you will see that you have the choice between several models and ensemble
members. Select:
Model: NorESM1-M (NCC, Norway)
Ensemble: r1i1p1

 Solution with Python 

Retrieve Climate data with CDS API

Using CDS web interface is very useful when you need to retrieve small amount of data and you do not need to customize
your request. However, it is often very useful to retrieve climate data directly on the computer where you need to run your
postprocessing workflow.

In that case, you can use the CDS API (Application Programming Interface) to retrieve Climate data directly in Python from the
Climate Data Store.

We will be using cdsapi python package.

Get your API key

Make sure you login to the Climate Data Store (https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/#!/home)

Click on your username (top right of the main page) to get your API key.

Copy the code displayed beside, in the file $HOME/.cdsapirc

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Bash

url: https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/api/v2
key: UID:KEY

Where UID is your uid and KEY your API key. See documentation (https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/api-how-to) to get your
API and related information.

Use CDS API

Once the CDS API client is installed, it can be used to request data from the datasets listed in the CDS catalogue. It is
necessary to agree to the Terms of Use of every datasets that you intend to download.

Attached to each dataset download form, the button Show API Request displays the python code to be used. The request
can be formatted using the interactive form. The api call must follow the syntax:

Python

import cdsapi
c = cdsapi.Client()

c.retrieve("dataset-short-name",
{... sub-selection request ...},
"target-file")

For instance to retrieve the same ERA5 dataset e.g. near surface air temperature for June 2003:

Let’s try it:

Python

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import cdsapi

c = cdsapi.Client()

c.retrieve(
'reanalysis-era5-single-levels-monthly-means',
{
'product_type':'monthly_averaged_reanalysis',
'variable':'2m_temperature',
'year':'2003',
'month':'06',
'time':'00:00',
'format':'netcdf'
},
'download.nc')

Geographical subset
Python

import cdsapi

c = cdsapi.Client()

c.retrieve(
'reanalysis-era5-single-levels-monthly-means',
{
'area' : [60, -10, 50, 2], # North, West, South, East. Default: global
'product_type':'monthly_averaged_reanalysis',
'variable':'2m_temperature',
'year':'2003',
'month':'06',
'time':'00:00',
'format':'netcdf'
},
'download_small_area.nc')

Change horizontal resolution

For instance to get a coarser resolution:

Python

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import cdsapi

c = cdsapi.Client()

c.retrieve(
'reanalysis-era5-single-levels-monthly-means',
{
'area' : [60, -10, 50, 2], # North, West, South, East. Default: global
'grid' : [1.0, 1.0], # Latitude/longitude grid: east-west (longitude) and north
-south resolution (latitude). Default: 0.25 x 0.25
'product_type':'monthly_averaged_reanalysis',
'variable':'2m_temperature',
'year':'2003',
'month':'06',
'time':'00:00',
'format':'netcdf'
},
'download_small.nc')

More information can be found here (https://confluence.ecmwf.int/display/CKB/C3S+ERA5%3A+Web+API+to+CDS+API).

To download CMIP 5 Climate data via CDS API

Python

import cdsapi

c = cdsapi.Client()

c.retrieve(
'projections-cmip5-monthly-single-levels',
{
'variable':'2m_temperature',
'model':'noresm1_m',
'experiment':'historical',
'ensemble_member':'r1i1p1',
'period':'185001-200512'
},
'download_CMIP5.nc')

✏ Download CMIP5 from Climate Data Store with cdsapi

Get near surface air temperature (2m temperature) and precipitation (mean precipitation flux) in one single request
and save the result in a file cmip5_sfc_monthly_1850-200512.zip
What do you get when you unzip this file?

 Solution 

How to open several files with xarray ?

In our last exercise, we downloaded two files, containing temperature and precipitation.

With xarray , it is possible to open these two files at the same time and get one unique view e.g. very much like if we had
one file only:

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Python

import xarray as xr

# use open_mfdataset to open alll netCDF files

# contained in the directory called cmip5
dset = xr.open_mfdataset("cmip5/*.nc")
print(dset)

Output

<xarray.Dataset>
Dimensions: (bnds: 2, lat: 96, lon: 144, time: 1872)
Coordinates:
* time (time) object 1850-01-16 12:00:00 ... 2005-12-16 12:00:00
* lat (lat) float64 -90.0 -88.11 -86.21 -84.32 ... 86.21 88.11 90.0
* lon (lon) float64 0.0 2.5 5.0 7.5 10.0 ... 350.0 352.5 355.0 357.5
height float64 ...
Dimensions without coordinates: bnds
Data variables:
time_bnds (time, bnds) object dask.array<shape=(1872, 2), chunksize=(1872, 2)>
lat_bnds (lat, bnds) float64 dask.array<shape=(96, 2), chunksize=(96, 2)>
lon_bnds (lon, bnds) float64 dask.array<shape=(144, 2), chunksize=(144, 2)>
pr (time, lat, lon) float32 dask.array<shape=(1872, 96, 144), chunksize=(1872, 9
6, 144)>
tas (time, lat, lon) float32 dask.array<shape=(1872, 96, 144), chunksize=(1872, 9
6, 144)>
Attributes:
institution: Norwegian Climate Centre
institute_id: NCC
experiment_id: historical
source: NorESM1-M 2011 atmosphere: CAM-Oslo (CAM4-Oslo-n...
model_id: NorESM1-M
forcing: GHG, SA, Oz, Sl, Vl, BC, OC
parent_experiment_id: piControl
parent_experiment_rip: r1i1p1
branch_time: 255135.0
contact: Please send any requests or bug reports to noresm...
initialization_method: 1
physics_version: 1
tracking_id: 5ccde64e-cfe8-47f6-9de8-9ea1621e7781
product: output
experiment: historical
frequency: mon
creation_date: 2011-06-01T05:45:35Z
history: 2011-06-01T05:45:35Z CMOR rewrote data to comply ...
Conventions: CF-1.4
project_id: CMIP5
table_id: Table Amon (27 April 2011) a5a1c518f52ae340313ba0...
title: NorESM1-M model output prepared for CMIP5 historical
parent_experiment: pre-industrial control
modeling_realm: atmos
realization: 1
cmor_version: 2.6.0

How to use xarray to get metadata?

Get the list of variables
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for varname, variable in dset.items():

print(varname)

Output

time_bnds
lat_bnds
lon_bnds
pr
tas

Create a python dictionary with variable and long name

Python

dict_variables = {}
for varname, variable in dset.items():
if len(dset[varname].attrs) > 0:
dict_variables[dset[varname].attrs['long_name']] = varname
print(dict_variables)
print(list(dict_variables.keys()))

Output

{'Precipitation': 'pr', 'Near-Surface Air Temperature': 'tas'}

['Precipitation', 'Near-Surface Air Temperature']

Select temperature (tas)

two notations for accessing variables

Python

dset.tas

Output

<xarray.DataArray 'tas' (time: 1872, lat: 96, lon: 144)>

dask.array<shape=(1872, 96, 144), dtype=float32, chunksize=(1872, 96, 144)>
Coordinates:
* time (time) object 1850-01-16 12:00:00 ... 2005-12-16 12:00:00
* lat (lat) float64 -90.0 -88.11 -86.21 -84.32 ... 84.32 86.21 88.11 90.0
* lon (lon) float64 0.0 2.5 5.0 7.5 10.0 ... 350.0 352.5 355.0 357.5
height float64 ...
Attributes:
standard_name: air_temperature
long_name: Near-Surface Air Temperature
units: K
original_name: TREFHT
cell_methods: time: mean
cell_measures: area: areacella
history: 2011-06-01T03:52:41Z altered by CMOR: Treated scalar d...
associated_files: baseURL: http://cmip-pcmdi.llnl.gov/CMIP5/dataLocation...

Python

dset['tas']

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Output

<xarray.DataArray 'tas' (time: 1872, lat: 96, lon: 144)>

dask.array<shape=(1872, 96, 144), dtype=float32, chunksize=(1872, 96, 144)>
Coordinates:
* time (time) object 1850-01-16 12:00:00 ... 2005-12-16 12:00:00
* lat (lat) float64 -90.0 -88.11 -86.21 -84.32 ... 84.32 86.21 88.11 90.0
* lon (lon) float64 0.0 2.5 5.0 7.5 10.0 ... 350.0 352.5 355.0 357.5
height float64 ...
Attributes:
standard_name: air_temperature
long_name: Near-Surface Air Temperature
units: K
original_name: TREFHT
cell_methods: time: mean
cell_measures: area: areacella
history: 2011-06-01T03:52:41Z altered by CMOR: Treated scalar d...
associated_files: baseURL: http://cmip-pcmdi.llnl.gov/CMIP5/dataLocation...

Get attributes
Python

dset['tas'].attrs['long_name']

Output

'Near-Surface Air Temperature'

Python

dset['tas'].attrs['units']

Output

'K'

How to create a function to generate a plot for a given date and given
variable?
Instead of copy-paste the same code several times to plot different variables and dates, it is common to define a function with
the date and variable as parameters:

Python

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import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

import cartopy.crs as ccrs

def generate_plot(date, variable):

fig = plt.figure(figsize=[12,5])

# 111 means 1 row, 1 col and index 1

ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection=ccrs.PlateCarree(central_longitude=0))

dset[variable].sel(time=date).plot(cmap='jet',
transform=ccrs.PlateCarree())
ax.coastlines(color='white', linewidth=2.)

Call generate_plot function to plot 2m temperature

Python

generate_plot(dset.time.values.tolist()[0], 'tas')

Plotting on-demand with Jupyter widgets

Our goal in this section is to learn to create a user interface where one can select the variable and date to plot.

Create a widget to select available variables

%matplotlib inline
import ipywidgets as widgets
select_variable = widgets.Select(
options=['2m temperature', 'precipitation'],
value='2m temperature',
rows=2,
description='Variable:',
disabled=False
)

display(select_variable)

{. .language-python}

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Create a widget to select date (year and month)

Python

%matplotlib inline
import ipywidgets as widgets
select_date = widgets.Dropdown(
options=dset.time.values.tolist(),
rows=2,
description='Date:',
disabled=False
)

display(select_date)

Use widgets to plot the chosen variable at the chosen date

Python

import ipywidgets as widgets

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import cartopy.crs as ccrs

# widget for variables

list_variables = list(dict_variables.keys())
select_variable = widgets.Select(
options=list_variables,
value=list_variables[0],
rows=2,
description='Variable:',
disabled=False
)

# Widget for date

select_date = widgets.Dropdown(
options=dset.time.values.tolist(),
rows=2,
description='Date:',
disabled=False
)

# generate plot
def generate_plot(date, variable):

fig = plt.figure(figsize=[12,5])

# 111 means 1 row, 1 col and index 1

ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection=ccrs.PlateCarree(central_longitude=0))

dset[dict_variables[variable]].sel(time=date).plot(cmap='jet',
transform=ccrs.PlateCarree())
ax.coastlines(color='white', linewidth=2.)

interact_plot = widgets.interact(generate_plot, date = select_date, variable = select_variable);

Date: 1850-01-16 12:00:00

Variable: Precipitation
Near-Surface Air Temperature

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 Remark

The plot does not change in the image above because we only have static HTML pages. However, you can test it with
mybinder:

launch binder

(https://mybinder.org/v2/gh/NordicESMhub/climate-data-tutorial/gh-pages?filepath=files%2Fpython_widgets.ipynb).

 Key Points

xarray
cartopy
CDS API for Python

 
(../02- (../04
cds/index.html) visua
R/ind
Edit on GitHub (https://github.com/NordicESMhub/climate-data-tutorial/edit/gh-pages/_episodes/03-visualization-python.md) /
Contributing (https://github.com/NordicESMhub/climate-data-tutorial/blob/gh-pages/CONTRIBUTING.md) / Source
(https://github.com/NordicESMhub/climate-data-tutorial/) / Cite (https://github.com/NordicESMhub/climate-data-tutorial/blob/gh-
pages/CITATION) / Contact (mailto:annefou@geo.uio.no)

Using The Carpentries style (https://github.com/carpentries/styles/) version 9.5.3

(https://github.com/carpentries/styles/releases/tag/v9.5.3).

https://nordicesmhub.github.io/climate-data-tutorial/03-visualization-python/ 20/20