How do I set a temperature and/or colour range for a surface temperature map of WRF data?

Hi there, I'm sorry if this is a silly question but I'm so stuck! I'm new to Matlab and am researching heat mitigation and am currently trying to create a surface temperature plot using data from the WRF model. I'm trying to produce a surface temperature model with this colour scheme;

I believe I have the right scheme, but I'm having trouble incrementing the colours properly. This is really important because we want to compare our model's surface temperature map with a surface temperature map from satellite data (made with code from our research partners). However, when I plot a surface temperature map of my model data, the colours seem to be very concentrated in the dark blue region except for one tiny spot, as seen below;

My guess is that the model may have one or two grid cells with abnormally high temperatures and that's throwing something off? So I wanted to limit my range to between 283 and 328 K, because that's the range of the satellite data surface temperature plot. This is my current code;

filename=('wrfout_d03_2018-07-03_12:00:00');
temp=ncread(filename, 'TSK');

longitude=ncread(filename, 'XLONG');
latitude=ncread(filename, 'XLAT');


mycolours = [0 0 168/255; 0 0 250/255; 0 52/255 1; 0 129/255 1; 0 200/255 1; 35/255 1 212/255; 93/255 1 154/255; 154/255 1 93/255; 212/255 1 35/255; 1 219/255 0; 1 148/255 0; 1 82/255 0; 250/255 15/255 0; 168/255 0 0]
colormap(mycolours);

contourf(longitude, latitude, temp, 283:328);

I'm not quite sure what I'm missing (or maybe I'm misdiagnosing the problem entirely?). I've also tried 283:3:328 in contourf and that didn't help either. I would appreciate any advice! Thank you!

Answer 1

[Abhinaya Kennedy]

% Load data
filename = 'wrfout_d03_2018-07-03_12:00:00';
temp = ncread(filename, 'TSK');
longitude = ncread(filename, 'XLONG');
latitude = ncread(filename, 'XLAT');

% Clip temperature data to the desired range
temp(temp < 283) = 283;
temp(temp > 328) = 328;

% Define custom colormap
mycolours = [0 0 168/255; 0 0 250/255; 0 52/255 1; 0 129/255 1; 0 200/255 1; 
             35/255 1 212/255; 93/255 1 154/255; 154/255 1 93/255; 212/255 1 35/255; 
             1 219/255 0; 1 148/255 0; 1 82/255 0; 250/255 15/255 0; 168/255 0 0];
colormap(mycolours);

% Define contour levels
contourLevels = 283:1:328;

% Plot with contourf
contourf(longitude, latitude, temp, contourLevels, 'LineColor', 'none');
colorbar; % Add a colorbar for reference

% Set color limits to match the data range
caxis([283 328]);

% Add labels and title
xlabel('Longitude');
ylabel('Latitude');
title('Surface Temperature (K)');

• Data Clipping: The temperature data is clipped to the range [283, 328] using max and min functions.
• Contour Plot: contourf is used with specified levels from 283 to 328.
• Color Limits: caxis ensures the colormap aligns with the specified temperature range.
• Colorbar and Labels: A colorbar is added for reference, and labels are set for clarity.

This should streamline your plotting process while ensuring the colors are mapped correctly to the temperature range.