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Marine Data Literacy 2.0

Providing instruction for managing, converting, analyzing and displaying oceanographic station data, marine meteorological data, GIS-compatible marine and coastal data or model simulations, and mapped remote sensing imagery

 

 

 

 

Home > 4. Ocean Data View > 4.2 Station Plots

4.2 Creating Marine Data Station Plots in ODV

  • Exercise Title:  Creating Marine Data Station Plots in Ocean Data View (ODV)

  • Abstract:  The method to create station plots with Ocean Data View is demonstrated.

  • Preliminary Reading (in OceanTeacher, unless otherwise indicated):

    • N/A

  • Required Software:

  • Other Resources: 

    • ODV collection osd_all_liberia_wod.odv

  • Author:  Murray Brown

  • Version:  March 2012
1.  Station plots are used to show the variation of any property (on the X axis) with depth (on the Y axis; usually reversed so zero is at the top), although in principle any combination of variables could be used.  They are useful mainly for illustrating water column properties/processes, and are often used for teaching.  [Note that a station plot is one of the uncommon instances in natural science where the independent variable, depth, is usually plotted on the Y axis.]
2.  You should see something like this in ODV (after the previous exercise in this group).
3.  Select VIEW > LAYOUT TEMPLATES > 1 STATION WINDOW

NOTE:  The other station options have multiple display graphs; you can explore them on your own, later.
4.  This new layout appears, with an empty graph on the right.  It asks you to press ENTER to make a graph of the default station (indicated by the small red cross on the map).

Press ENTER.
5.  This plot (or something similar) should appear.  If you don't see data on the graph, click on another point on the map.

Notice that the first graph is scaled according to the first point you pick, and the ranges (0 m to 400 m;  5 degrees to 30 degrees) is usually not typical of the entire data collection.
6.  As you click on other station, you will see their plots appearing temporarily on the graph.
7.  You must double-click on any station to make its data appear permanently on the graph, as you see here.
8.  You can select any measurement on the graph, to see its exact values in the panel on the right.  Notice that it shows :
  • Metadata in the top panel.  See what these items are.
  • Sample data in the middle panel. Read through the list of variables
  • Isosurface variables in the bottom panel (not shown here).  Explained later when you work with SURFACE MODE maps

You can use the UP and DOWN arrows to move upward and downward in the same station.

You can use the RIGHT and LEFT arrows to move to previous and subsequent stations in the same cruise, or subsequent cruises in the same collection.
9.  If you want to delete a station from the graphic, select any sample in the station, as you see here.  Then click DELETE.
10.  And the selection station is removed from the graphic.
11.  If you feel the full range of data in the collection is not being shown, then right-click on the graph and select FULL RANGE.
12.  Now you can see the full range of values, going down to 4000 m.  And the range of temperatures is greater.
13.  If you want to select particular ranges, right-click on the graph and select SET RANGES.
14.  And here you can set the value ranges for the X and Y axes. 10
15.  Here are some temperature values for the range of 0 to 500 m, and 10 to 20 degrees, for example.
16.  To save this view of the data, select VIEW > SAVE VIEW AS
17.  Then save it with the name temps_0m_500m_liberia_wod_10deg_20deg  (the location and extension will be automatically set by ODV).
18.  This is a good introduction to the station plots.  Now we'll move on to scatter plots.