Ionosphere Space Weather

This space weather example plots a filled contour of rotated pole point data with a shaded relief image underlay. The plot shows aggregated vertical electron content in the ionosphere.

The plot exhibits an interesting outline effect due to excluding data values below a certain threshold.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy.ma as ma

import iris
import iris.plot as iplt
import iris.quickplot as qplt


def main():
    # Load the "total electron content" cube.
    filename = iris.sample_data_path("space_weather.nc")
    cube = iris.load_cube(filename, "total electron content")

    # Explicitly mask negative electron content.
    cube.data = ma.masked_less(cube.data, 0)

    # Plot the cube using one hundred colour levels.
    qplt.contourf(cube, 100)
    plt.title("Total Electron Content")
    plt.xlabel("longitude / degrees")
    plt.ylabel("latitude / degrees")
    plt.gca().stock_img()
    plt.gca().coastlines()

    iplt.show()


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()