Notebook

PySeison - Tutorial 4: TideGauge class¶

In [1]:

%pylab inline

Populating the interactive namespace from numpy and matplotlib

1. PySeidon-dvt - TideGauge object initialisation¶

Similarly to the "ADCP class" and the "Drifter class", the "TideGauge class" is a measurement-based object.

1.1. Package importation¶

As any other library in Python-dvt, PySeidon has to be first imported before to be used. Here we will use an alternative import statement compared to the one previoulsy presented:

In [2]:

from pyseidon_dvt import *

*** Star *** here means all. Usually this form of statements would import the entire library. In the case of PySeidon-dvt, this statement will import the following object classes: FVCOM, Station, Validation, ADCP, Tidegauge and Drifter. Only the TideGauge class will be tackle in this tutorial. However note should note that the architecture design and functioning between each classes are very similar.

1.2. Object definition¶

Python is by definition an object oriented language...and so is matlab. PySeidon-dvt is based on this notion of object, so let us define our first "Tidegauge" object.

*Exercise 1: *

Unravel TideGauge documentation with Ipython *shortcuts*

*Answer: *

In [3]:

TideGauge?

According to the documentation, in order to define a TideGauge object, the only required input is a *filename. This string input represents path to a file (e.g. testAdcp=TideGauge('./path_to_matlab_file/filename') and whose file must be a matlab file (i.e. *.mat).

Note that, at the current stage, the package only handle a certain type of file and data format. A template for the TideGauge file/data format is provided in the package under data4tutorial

*Exercise 2: *

define a tide gauge object named tg from the following template: ./data4tutorial/tidegauge_GP_01aug2013.mat
Tip: adapt the file's path to your local machine.

*Answer: *

In [3]:

tg = TideGauge('./data4tutorial/tidegauge_GP_01aug2013.mat')

1.3. Object attributes, functions, methods & special methods¶

The TideGauge object possesses 3 attributes and 3 methods. They would appear by typing *tg. Tab* for instance.

An attribute is a quantity intrinsic to its object. A method is an intrinsic function which changes an attribute of its object. Contrarily a function will generate its own output:

object.method(inputs) output = object.function(inputs)

The Station attributes are:

*History*: history metadata that keeps track of the object changes
*Data: gathers the raw/unchanged data of the specified .mat file
*Variables*: gathers the hydrodynamics related data. Note that methods will generate new fields in this attribute

The Station methods & functions are:

*Utils*: gathers utility methods and functions for use with 2D and 3D variables
*Plots*: gathers plotting methods for use with 2D and 3D variables
*dump_profile_data: dumps profile data (x,y) in a .csv file.

2. PySeidon-dvt - Hands-on (2 mins)¶

Utils & Plots¶

*Exercise 3: *

Perform a harmonic analysis of the elevation and print out the result
Reconstruction these elevation based on the harmonic results of the previous question
Convert matlabtime in datetime
Plot the elevation-minus-reconstructed-elevation time series.

*Answer: *

In [4]:

harmo = tg.Utils.harmonics()
recons = tg.Utils.reconstr(harmo)
times = map(tg.Utils.mattime2datetime, tg.Variables.matlabTime[:])
ini_minus_recons = ini_minus_recons = tg.Variables.el - recons['h']
tg.Plots.plot_xy(times, ini_minus_recons, title='Residual tidal signal', xLabel='Time', yLabel='Elevation (m)')

solve: 
matrix prep ... 
Solution ...
diagnostics...
Done.

reconstruct:
prep/calcs...
Done.

/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/matplotlib/figure.py:387: UserWarning: matplotlib is currently using a non-GUI backend, so cannot show the figure
  "matplotlib is currently using a non-GUI backend, "

Save functions¶

*Exercise 5: *

*Dump* depth-averaged velocity and time step data in a *.csv file

*Answer: *

In [7]:

tg.dump_profile_data(times, ini_minus_recons, title='Residual_tidal_signal', xLabel='Time', yLabel='Elevation (m)')

4. Bug patrol & steering committee¶

4.1. Bug report¶

As beta tester, your first assignement is to report bugs...yet not everything is a bug. The first thing to check before to report a bug is to verify that your version of PySeidon-dvt is up-to-date. The best way to keep up with the package evolution is to *git* to *clone* the repository, use *pull* to update it and *re-install* it if needed.

The second thing to check before to report a bug is to verify that the bug is *reproducible. When running into a bug, double check that your inputs fit the description of the documentation then turn the debug flag on* (e.g. output = tidegaugeobject.function(inputs, debug=True)) and submit the command again. If the error re-occurs then report it (i.e. copy entire error message + command and send it to package administrator)

4.2. Suggestions & critics¶

Your second role as beta-tester is to submit suggestions and critics to the developpers regarding the functioning and functionality of the package. Beta testing phase is the best opportunity to steer a project towards the applications you would like to be tackled...