PySeison - Tutorial 5: Drifter class



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%pylab inline









    



Populating the interactive namespace from numpy and matplotlib

1. PySeidon - Drifter object initialisation

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

1.1. Package importation

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



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from pyseidon import *

Star here means all. Usually this form of statements would import the entire library. In the case of PySeidon, 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 is based on this notion of object, so let us define our first "Drifter" object.

Exercise 1:

Unravel Drifter documentation with Ipython shortcuts

Answer:



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Drifter?

According to the documentation, in order to define a Drifter object, the only required input is a *filename. This string input represents path to a file (e.g. testAdcp=Drifter('./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 drifter object named drift from the following template: ./data4tutorial/drifter_GP_01aug2013.mat
Tip: adapt the file's path to your local machine.

Answer:



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drift = Drifter('./data4tutorial/drifter_GP_01aug2013.mat')

1.3. Object attributes, functions, methods & special methods

The TideGauge object possesses 3 attributes and 2 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:

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 - Hands-on (10 seconds)

Plots

Exercise 3:

Plot drifter's trajectorie

Answer:



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drift.Plots.trajectories()









    



/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/matplotlib/axes/_base.py:1057: UnicodeWarning: Unicode equal comparison failed to convert both arguments to Unicode - interpreting them as being unequal
  if aspect == 'normal':
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/matplotlib/axes/_base.py:1062: UnicodeWarning: Unicode equal comparison failed to convert both arguments to Unicode - interpreting them as being unequal
  elif aspect in ('equal', 'auto'):
/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, "

More to come in next version of Pyseidon...

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 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...