Data Animation Using Python (Part 3)

[yiboj]

We have talked about python animation routine ArtistAnimation and FuncAnimation in Part 1 and Part 2. In this final part, we will show you how to create picture frames using a python script and how to generate an animation from these picture frames.

The following python script shows the generation of each picture frame by using CMC0.1deg L4 SST dataset on July 24, 2016. The dataset info page is https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/CMC0.1deg-CMC-L4-GLOB-v3.0

Code: Select all

#! /usr/bin/env python
#
# a skeleton script to animate one day of L4 file using python matplotlib library.
#
##################################
# user parameters to be editted: #
##################################

# Caution: This is a Python script, and Python takes indentation seriously.
# DO NOT CHANGE INDENTATION OF ANY LINE BELOW!

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib as mpl
import matplotlib.cm as cm
from mpl_toolkits.basemap import Basemap, shiftgrid
from matplotlib.backends import backend_agg as agg # raster backend
from netCDF4 import Dataset

#Read init data
filename1 = '20160724120000-CMC-L4_GHRSST-SSTfnd-CMC0.1deg-GLOB-v02.0-fv03.0.nc'
ncin = Dataset(filename1, 'r')
lons = ncin.variables['lon'][:]
lats = ncin.variables['lat'][:]
sst = ncin.variables['analysed_sst'][:]
ncin.close()

#Setup figure object
parallels = np.arange(-90,90+30,30.)
meridians = np.arange(-180,180+60,60)
cmap=plt.get_cmap("jet")

plt.figure(figsize=(3.86, 3.86), dpi=100)

#Loop all frames
for alon in xrange(-180,180,2):
  # Set up the map
  # lat_ts is the latitude of true scale.
  # resolution = 'c' means use crude resolution coastlines.

  m = Basemap(projection='ortho', lon_0=alon, lat_0=20, resolution='c')
  m.shadedrelief(scale=0.1)
  m.drawcoastlines(color='0.4')
  m.drawcountries(color='0.4')
  m.drawparallels(np.arange(-90.,91.,30.))
  m.drawmeridians(np.arange(0., 360., 60.))
  m.drawmapboundary(fill_color='0.8')

  x, y = m(*np.meshgrid(lons, lats))
  clevs = np.linspace(270, 310, 21)

  cs=m.contourf(x, y, sst[0,:,:].squeeze(), clevs, cmap=cmap)
  cb = m.colorbar(cs, 'right', size='5%', pad='2%')
  cb.set_label('SST (K)', fontsize=12)

  m.fillcontinents(color='gray',lake_color='gray')

  plt.tight_layout()
  plt.savefig("frame{0}".format(str(alon+180).rjust(4, "0")))
  plt.clf()


After we have created all the picture frames we use the free UNIX ImageMagick (http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php) software and its convert command to generate the final animation in gif format:

% convert -delay 1 -loop 0 frame*.png sst_global.gif

sst_global.gif (1.23 MiB) Viewed 4694 times