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NAME

       grdcontour - contouring of 2-D gridded data sets

SYNOPSIS

       grdcontour             grdfile             -Ccont_int            -Jparameters            [
       -A[-][anot_int][ffont_size][aangle][/r/g/b][o|t]] ]  [  -Btickinfo  ]  [  -Ddumpfile  ]  [
       -Eazimuth/elevation ] [ -Ggap/width ] [ -K ] [ -Llow/high ] [ -M[flag] ] [ -N[[-]unit] ] [
       -O  ]  [  -P  ]  [  -Qcut  ]  [  -Rwest/east/south/north[r]  ]  [   -Ssmoothfactor   ]   [
       -T[+|-][gap/length][:LH] ] [ -U[/dx/dy/][label] ] [ -V  ] [ -W[+][type]pen ] [ -Xx-shift ]
       [ -Yy-shift ] [ -Z[factor[/shift]][p] ] [ -ccopies ] [ -bo[s[n]] ]

DESCRIPTION

       grdcontour reads a 2-D gridded file and produces a contour map  by  tracing  each  contour
       through  the grid. As an option, the x/y/z positions of the contour lines may be dumped to
       a single multisegment file or many separate files. PostScript code is generated  and  sent
       to standard output. Various options that affect the plotting are available.
               No  space between the option flag and the associated arguments. Use upper case for
       the option flags and lower case for modifiers.

       grdfile
              2-D gridded data set to be contoured

       -C     The contours to be drawn may be specified in one of three possible ways:
              If cont_int has the suffix ".cpt" and can be opened as a file, it is assumed to  be
              a  color  palette  table. The color boundaries are then used as contour levels.  If
              the cpt-file has anotation flags in the last column then  those  contours  will  be
              anotated. By default all contours are labeled; use -A- to disable all anotations.
              If  cont_int is a file but not a cpt-file, it is expected to contain contour levels
              in column 1 and a C(ontour) OR A(nnotate) in col 2. The levels marked C (or c)  are
              contoured,  the  levels  marked A (or a) are contoured and annotated. Optionally, a
              third column may be present and contain the fixed anotation angle for this  contour
              level.
              If  no  file is found, then cont_int is interpreted as a constant contour interval.
              If -A is set and -C is not, then the contour interval is set equal to the specified
              anotation interval.
              If  a file is given and -T is set, then only contours marked with upper case C or A
              will have tickmarks.

       -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
              .gmtdefaults, but this can be overridden on the command line by appending the c, i,
              or m to the scale/width value.

              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]  (polar  (theta,r)  coordinates,  optional  a for azimuths and
              offset theta [0])
              -Jxx-scale[l|ppow][/y-scale[l|ppow]] (Linear, log, and power scaling)
              More details can be found in the psbasemap manpages.

OPTIONS

       No space between the option flag and the associated arguments.

       -A     anot_int is annotation interval in data units. Ignored if contour levels are  given
              in  a  file.  [Default is no annotations]. Several options can be set to modify the
              form of the annotation. Give - to disable all  anotations.   Append  ffont_size  to
              change  font size [9], append /r/g/b to change color of text fill box [PAGE_COLOR],
              append aangle to fix annotation angle [Default follows contour], append o  to  draw
              the outline of the surrounding text box [Default is no outline], or append t to use
              a transparent label box [Default is opaque].

       -B     Sets map boundary tickmark intervals. See psbasemap for details.

       -D     Dump the (x,y,z) coordinates of each  contour  to  separate  files,  one  for  each
              contour segment. The files will be named dumpfile_cont_segment[_i].xyz (or .b is -b
              is selected), where cont is the contour value and  segment  is  a  running  segment
              number  for each contour interval (for closed contours we append _i.) If the prefix
              is given as '-' the file names are instead C#_i (interior) or C#_e (external)  plus
              extension,  and # is just a running number. This allows us to make short file names
              that will work with  GNU  utilities  under  DOS.   However,  when  -M  is  used  in
              conjunction with -D a single multisegment file is created instead.

       -E     Sets the viewpoint's azimuth and elevation for perspective view [180/90]'

       -G     gap is distance between each annotation along the same contour.  width is number of
              points over which to estimate the best fitting slope for contour labels [Default is
              10c/10 or 4i/10].

       -K     More PostScript code will be appended later [Default terminates the plot system].

       -L     Limit range: Do not draw contours for data values below low or above high.

       -M     When  used  in  conjunction with -D a single multisegment file is created, and each
              contour section is preceeded by a header record whose first column is flag followed
              by the contour level.

       -N     Appends  unit  to all contour labels (assuming -A is set). If no name is specified,
              the unit given in the grdfile will be used. If unit starts with a  leading  -  then
              there will be no space between contour value and the unit. [Default is no unit].

       -bo    Selects binary output. Append s for single precision [Default is double].

       -P     Selects Portrait plotting mode [GMT Default is Landscape, see gmtdefaults to change
              this].

       -Q     Do not draw contours with less than cut number of points [Draw all contours].

       -R     west, east, south, and north specify the Region of interest. To specify  boundaries
              in  degrees and minutes [and seconds], use the dd:mm[:ss] format. Append r if lower
              left and upper right map coordinates are given instead of wesn.  [Default is region
              defined in the grd file].

       -S     Used  to  resample  the  contour lines at roughly every (gridbox_size/smoothfactor)
              interval.

       -T     Will draw tickmarks  pointing  in  the  downward  direction  every  gap  along  the
              innermost  closed  contours.   Append  gap  and  tickmark  length  or  use defaults
              [0.5c/0.1c or 0.2i/0.04i].  User may choose to tick only local highs or local  lows
              by  specifying  -T+ or -T-, respectively.  Appending :LH will plot the characters L
              and H at the center of closed innermost contours (local lows and highs).  L  and  H
              can  be  any single character (e.g., LH, -+, etc.)  If a file is given by -C and -T
              is set, then only contours marked with upper case C or A will have  tickmarks  [and
              anotation].

       -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     type, if present, can be 'a' for annotated contours or  'c'  for  regular  contours
              [Default].   pen  sets  the  attributes for the particular line. Default values for
              annotated contours: width = 3, color = black, texture  =  solid.  Regular  contours
              have  default  width  = 1. If the + flag is specified then the color of the contour
              lines are taken from the cpt file (see -C).

       -X -Y  Shift origin of plot by (x-shift,y-shift).  Prepend a for absolute coordinates; the
              default (r) will reset plot origin.

       -Z     Use  to  subtract  shift  from  the  data and multiply the results by factor before
              contouring starts [1/0].  (Numbers in 0 -L refer to values after this  scaling  has
              occurred.)   Append  p  to  indicate that this grid file contains z-values that are
              periodic in 360 degrees (e.g., phase data, angular distributions) and that  special
              precautions must be taken when determining 0-contours.

       -c     Specifies the number of plot copies. [Default is 1]

       -bo    Selects binary output. Append s for single precision [Default is double].

EXAMPLES

       To  contour  the  file hawaii_grav.grd every 25 mGal on a Mercator map at 0.5 inch/degree,
       annotate every 50 mGal (using fontsize = 10), using 1 degree tickmarks, and draw 30 minute
       gridlines, try

       grdcontour hawaii_grav.grd -Jm0.5i -C25 -A50f10 -B1g30m > hawaii_grav.ps

       To  contour  the file image.grd using the levels in the file cont.d on a linear projection
       at 0.1 cm/x-unit and 50 cm/y-unit, using 20 (x) and 0.1 (y) tickmarks, smooth the contours
       a  bit,  use "RMS Misfit" as plot-title, use a thick red pen for annotated contours, and a
       thin, dashed, blue pen for the rest, try

       grdcontour image.grd  -Jx0.1c/50.0c  -Ccont.d  -S4  -B20/0.1:."RMS  Misfit":  -Wa5/255/0/0
       -Wc1/0/0/255ta | lp

BUGS

       The  text-outline box has not been implemented for perspective view plots. Anotations will
       plot correctly, but contours will go right through the text.
       The labeling of local highs and lows may plot outside the innermost contour since only the
       mean value of the contour coordinates is used to position the label.
       The  size  of the white box beneath contour anotations is augmented by dx and dy which are
       set to 50% and 5% of ANOT_OFFSET,  respectively.  You  must  thus  change  this  value  in
       .gmtdefaults to affect the box size.
       There are too many options.

SEE ALSO

       gmt(1gmt),     gmtdefaults(1gmt),    psbasemap(1gmt),    grdimage(1gmt),    grdview(1gmt),
       pscontour(1gmt)

                                            1 Jan 2004                              GRDCONTOUR(l)