---
name: "voaAreaPlot"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "pythonprop"
version: "0.30.1-2"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/voaAreaPlot"
---

# voaAreaPlot(1)

Plot VOACAP Area Data Files

## NAME

voaAreaPlot - Plot VOACAP Area Data Files

## SYNOPSIS

**voaAreaPlot \[options\] file\_name**

## DESCRIPTION

**voaAreaPlot** A python script used to graphically display the contents of output files produced by VOACAP 'area' calculations. the 'file\_name parameter defines the path to a .voa or .vgz file.  If a .voa file is specified, the corresponding output files (e.g. '.vg1') must be located in the same directory.

## OPTIONS

- \--version

  Display the version number and exit.

- \-c, --contours

  Plot contours on the map.

- \-d DATATYPE, --datatype=DATATYPE

  An integer number representing the data type (MUF, REL or SNR) to plot. Valid values of DATATYPE are 1 (MUF), 2 (REL), 3 (SNR) 4 (SNRxx), 5 (SDBW) and 6 (SDBW - formatted as S-Meter values).  Default value is 1 (MUF)

- \--filled-contour

  Creates a filled contour plot.

- \-h, --help

  Print a help message and exit.

- \-i, --meridian

  Plot meridians (lines of constant latitude) on the map..

- \-k, --background

  Specify the colour of the background. Any legal HTML color specification is supported e.g '-k red', '-k #eeefff', (default = white)

- \-l, --parallels (lines of constant longitude) on the map.

  Plot parallels.

- \-m COLOURMAP, --cmap=COLOURMAP

  COLOURMAP specifies the Colour map used by the plot.  Valid values are; 'autumn', 'bone', 'cool','copper', 'gray', 'hot', 'hsv', 'jet', 'pink', 'spring', 'summer', 'winter'.  Default value is 'jet'

- \-n POI\_FILE, --interest=POI\_FILE

  POI\_FILE is a text file with points of interest to plot on the map.  The file is comma (,) delimited with a single point of interest on each line in the form "longitude, latitude, text\_name". The file format is the same as Garmin's POI csv files.  A sample file would look like;\
   36\.599998, 28.366667, Tabuk\
   39\.183334, 21.700001, Jeddah\
   42\.799999, 18.299999, Khamis Mushait\
   40\.549999, 21.483334, Taif\
   50\.150002, 26.266666, Dahran

- \-p PROJECTION, --projection=PROJECTION

  PROJECTION specifies the map projection.  Valid values are 'cyl' (Equidistant Cylindrical), 'mill' (Miller Cylindrical), gall' (Gall Stereographic), 'robin' (Robinson), 'vandg' (van der Grinten), 'sinu' (Sinusoidal), 'mbtfpq' (McBryde-Thomas Flat Polar Quartic), 'eck4' (Eckert IV), 'kav7' (Kavrayskiy VII), 'moll' (Mollweide), 'hammer' (Hammer).

- \-r RESOLUTION, --resolution=RESOLUTION

  A single character representing resolution of the final plot.  RESOLUTION may be one of 'c' (crude), 'l' (low), 'i' (intermediate), 'h' (high), 'f' (full)

- \-t, --terminator

  Displays the night/day regions on the map.

- \-v VG\_FILES, --vg\_files=VG\_FILES

  VG\_FILES specifies which .vg files to plot, e.g. '-v 1,3,5,6' or use '-v a' to print all plots associated with the input file.  Default is 1.

- \-z TIMEZONE, --timezone=TIMEZONE

  Specify a timezone.  This option adjusts the (UTC) time specified in the datafile to the users local time.

## EXAMPLES

- voaAreaPlot aDataFile.voa

  Plots the contents of the file aDataFile.voa using default settings.

- voaAreaPlot aZipArchive.vgz

  Plots the contents of the .voa file found in the .vgz archive using the default settings.

- voaAreaPlot -r i -p mill aDataFile.voa

  Plots an intermediate resolution miller projection.

- voaAreaPlot -m autumn -p ortho aDataFile.voa

  Plots an orthographic projection using the colour map 'autumn'.

## ENVIRONMENT

voaAreaPlot does not require or make use of any environmental variables.   The program requires the matlibplot library and basemap toolkit to run.

## BUGS

No major bugs are known. Please submit .voa and .vg\* files when submitting bug reports.

## AUTHOR

The application and and man page was written by James Watson (M0DNS / HZ1JW) \<jimwatson at mac dot com\>

## ACKNOLEDGMENTS

I'm indebted to the authors of matplotlib and the basemap toolkit which make plotting complex data sets straight forward and fun :-) Also to Lowell and Alex for beta testing and support.