AERPLOT - plotfile visualization program ============================================= This program is written in a combination of Python 2.7 and Fortran. This program is designed to run on Microsoft Windows. Integration with Google Earth ----------------------------- The program is designed to take a .PLT plotfile and produce a .KMZ file suitable for display in an 'earth browser'. It was developed with the Google Earth earth browser in mind. Format of the .PLT file ----------------------- The program is designed to work with .PLT (plot files) generated by AERMOD. It will work with any file that matches the AERMOD plot file format, in these particulars: The data must be present in the first three columns, that match AERMOD's in column number placement and width. These are X, Y, and the concentration values. The X and Y must be in meters, else the placements will be wrong. The third value should be concentration and should be non-negative. If a LOG (logarithmic) binning technique is used, please realize that negative and zero values have no "correct" place in that scheme. The program will ignore non-positive values for creating the color scale and all values that are less than the lowest value in the scale will be binned into the bottom bin. In the file header, the two lines with column headers and their underscores (starting with the "#" sign) must be present. Warning for LOG binning ----------------------- Non-positive values are ignored for contour purposes and the behavior of the contours should be considered undefined. An effort has been made to just bin them into the very smallest of the positive bins, but negative values will still affect the "averaging" and "interpolating" operations and will possibly shift lines around. Credits in Software Used ------------------------ IECapt.exe A program named "IECapt.exe" is used to convert HTML into a PNG image. It is available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/iecapt www.sourceforge.net/iecapt. ApproxEqual.py A python module named "ApproxEqual" is used during development of "AERPLOT". It was written by Steven D'Aprano . "ApproxEqual" is not part of the code that runs in "AERPLOT"; however, it is used to very good advantage for testing purposes, and references to it appear in the documentation for a good many modules in this package. "ApproxEqual" was retrieved from http://code.activestate.com/recipes/577124-approximately-equal/ . Its content is part of this package. After retrieval, the EPA programmer added three routines. "list_approx_equal()" will compare lists to see if the floating point values within are almost equal. "utmApproxEqual()" and "latlonApproxEqual()" will do the same for geographic coordinates. Both were written at EPA. ============================================================================= Version 26135 ---------------------------------- Enhancements included ---------------------------------- Support has been added for using the FLAGPOLE option as a way of "plotting" in three dimensions. Point sources, like stacks, can be shown in Google Earth, as a towering stack. The height in Google Earth will match the "release height". For fiddling with 3D plots, these booleans need to be set in AERPLOT.INP for ease of use: show3Dconcentrations show3Dsources MinimumConcentrationAccepted MaximumConcentrationAccepted To run old AERPLOT.INP files, add the following four lines anywhere: minimumconcentrationaccepted=NONE maximumconcentrationaccepted=NONE show3dconcentrations=false show3dsources=false The first two of those should be set to NONE whenever 3D plotting is not being done. Command line argument has been added: HELP (which leads to other arguments as detailed in the HELP output) When called with the HELP option, AERPLOT displays a usage statement. The inputs to the advanced features can be from a previously prepared file. For instance, the parameters to be input can be listed, alone on a line, one parameter per line. Then it can be fed into the "application" so: TYPE | AERPLOT Commend line arguments can be used to access a tutorial on the 3D plots. See the AERPLOT HELP usage statement. Known Issues ---------------------------------- Progress meter now seems to work in the Windows CMD.EXE window, but has not been thoroughly tested.. The program creates a temporary file named "aerplot.kml". It is leaving it behind and not deleting it when done. If either minimumconcentrationaccepted or maximumconcentrationaccepted is left not set to NONE, but set to a number, it has happened that some concentrations were filtered out, leading to a "ValueError" message of "need more than values to unpack". ============================================================================= ** Version 24142 ---------------------------------- Enhancements included ---------------------------------- When plotting sources, the following types are now allowed: RLINE RLINEXT These are input and act according to the AERMOD User's Guide document. If a LINE source is specified by a SO LOCATION record in an aermod.inp file, but without the corresponding SO SRCPARAM record, then a warning is sent to stderr, and the LINE source is plotted without a width. If an AREA source is specified by a SO LOCATION record in an aermod.inp file, but without the corresponding SO SRCPARAM record, then a warning is sent to stderr, and the AREA source is plotted with a 2 meter wide polygon. ============================================================================= ** Version 16216 ---------------------------------- Enhancements included ---------------------------------- Sources, their types, and their areas, can now be added to the display. The parameters for these are read from an aermod.inp file the user provides. See the sample aerplot.inp file for details. Gradient lines are now added to the display. The aerplot.inp file has been reorganized for clarity, with expanded comments for explanations. Also, typos and misspellings in the sample AERPLOT.INP file are fixed. ============================================================================= ** Version 13329 ---------------------------------- Enhancements included --------------------- Contour lines are now added to the display. Progress meter for long operations (presently for contour calculations). The name of the folder for the receptor dots changed from the name of the whole plot to the name "Receptor_Placemark_Dots". This matches the name given to the folder containing the contour lines, making a more intelligible set of names for viewing in Google Earth's "Places" panel. The legend's html file is now stored in the .KMZ zip archive. It is not used. However, if the end user should wish to display it in an html browser, it can be extracted with most zip tools. Warnings are given when Min and/or Max are set incorrectly for Logarithmic binning, or if Min and Max are equal. Warnings are given if concentrations of zero are found while using Logarithmic binning. Bug Fixes --------- A "Camera" item has been added to counter the behavior of Google Earth to providing a tilted view of the plot for the initial viewing of the plot. "Camera" forces the default plot viewing angle to be from directly above. Known Issues ------------ The program uses temporary files in the local folder named: coordinates.txt latlon_utm.txt If there are existing files with those names in the local folder, they will be overwritten. ----- While producing the .KMZ file with the name specified in the AERPLOT.inp file, the program will use temporary files with the same file name but different suffixes. While producing a XYZ.kmz file, the program will produce and then remove: XYZ.kml XYZ_legend.png If there are existing files with those names in the local folder, they will be overwritten. ----- When the information balloon is opened for an icon, the line/arrow from the balloon back to the icon is anchored to the icon's bottom edge, and that suggests to some that the "hot spot" on the icon is there. Actually, the hot spot is defined as the place on the icon at which the icon is "attached" to the landscape. Experimentation indicates it actually is near the center of each circle icon, but also that it is dependent on the update status of the earth browser. ----- Receptors on the equator, or just on either side of it, can be shown with the wrong altitude. So if a plot spans the equator, the northern half might be shown higher than the southern half, while receptors exactly at 0.0 degrees might be on a third level.