5. Difficulty Index Plot

5.1. Description

The difficulty index plot is a graphical representation of the expected difficulty of a decision based on a set of forecasts (ensemble) of, e.g., significant wave height as a function of space and time. There are two basic factors that can make a decision difficult. The first factor is the proximity of the ensemble mean forecast to a decision threshold, e.g. 12 ft seas. If the ensemble mean is either much lower or much higher than the threshold, the decision is easier; if it is closer to the threshold, the decision is harder. The second factor is the forecast precision, or ensemble spread. The greater the spread around the ensemble mean, the more likely it is that there will be ensemble members both above and below the decision threshold, making the decision harder. (A third factor that we will not address here is undiagnosed systematic error, which adds uncertainty in a similar way to ensemble spread.) The challenge is combining these factors into a continuous function that allows the user to assess relative risk.

The code for calculating and plotting the difficulty index was developed by Bill Campbell and Liz Satterfield of the Navy Research Lab (NRL) and modified by NCAR.

For more information on calculating the difficulty index, please refer to this METplus use case: METviewer documentation.

5.2. Example

5.2.1. Sample Data

Sample data used to create an example difficulty index plot is available in the METplotpy repository, where the difficulty index plot code is located:

$METPLOTPY_BASE/test/difficulty_index/swh_North_Pacific_5dy_ensemble.npz

Copy this sample input file to your working directory, where you have read and write privileges:

cp $METPLOTPY_BASE/test/difficulty_index/swh_North_Pacific_5dy_ensemble.npz $WORKING_DIR

Where $METPLOTPY_BASE is the directory where you saved the METplotpy source code and $WORKING_DIR is the directory you created to store input data.

5.2.2. Required Packages

The following Python packages are necessary:

  • Python 3.8

  • numpy

  • matplotlib 2.2.2 (minimum)

  • scipy

5.2.3. Configuration Files

All the settings for the example difficulty index plot are incorporated in the mycolormaps.py and plot_difficulty_index.py code. The example_difficulty_index.py script imports these modules to create six sample plots. The location of where these plots are saved are determined by settings in the example_difficulty_index.yaml configuration file:

input_filename: 'path/to/swh_North_Pacific_5dy_ensemble.npz'
stat_fig_basename: 'path/to/output/swh_North_Pacific_5dy_'
diff_fig_basename: '/path/to/output/difficulty_index/swh_North_Pacific_difficulty_index_'

Copy this config file from the directory where the source code was saved to the working directory:

cp $METPLOTPY_BASE/test/difficulty_index/example_difficulty_index.yaml $WORKING_DIR/example_difficulty_index.yaml

Modify the input_filename setting in the $METPLOTPY_BASE/test/difficulty_index/example_difficulty_index.yaml file to explicitly point to the $METPLOTPY_BASE/test/difficulty_index directory (where the config file and sample data reside). Replace the path /path/to/swh_North_Pacific_5dy_ensemble.npz with the full path $METPLOTPY_BASE/test/difficulty_index/swh_North_Pacific_5dy_ensemble.npz (including replacing $METPLOTPY_BASE with the full path to the METplotpy installation on the system). Modify the stat_fig_basename setting to point to the output path where the two statistics plots will be saved. These plots will have a prefix of swh_North_Pacific_5dy_ Modify the diff_fig_basename setting to point to the output path where the other four difficulty index plots will be saved. These plots will have a prefix of swh_North_Pacific_difficulty_index_

5.3. METplus Configuration

5.4. Run from the Command Line

To generate the sample difficulty index plots, perform the following:

  • If using the conda environment, verify the conda environment is running and has has the required Python packages outlined in the Required Packages section above.

Where $METPLOTPY_BASE is the directory where you saved the METplotpy source code and $WORKING_DIR is the directory you created earlier to store the sample input data.

  • Change directory to the $WORKING_DIR:

    cd $WORKING_DIR
    

where $WORKING_DIR is the directory where you copied all the necessary files (e.g. /home/users/someuser/working_dir).

  • Run the following on the command line:

    python ${METPLOTPY_BASE}/test/difficulty_index/example_difficulty_index.py example_difficulty_index.yaml
    

You will generate the following six files in the directories you specified for the difficulty index and statistics plots:

“Statistics plots”

swh_North_Pacific_5dy_mean.png:

../_images/swh_North_Pacific_5dy_mean.png

swh_North_Pacific_5dy_std.png:

../_images/swh_North_Pacific_5dy_std.png

“Difficulty Index” Plots

swh_North_Pacific_difficulty_index_10_00_feet.png:

../_images/swh_North_Pacific_difficulty_index_10_00_feet.png

swh_North_Pacific_difficulty_index_11_00_feet.png:

../_images/swh_North_Pacific_difficulty_index_11_00_feet.png

swh_North_Pacific_difficulty_index_12_00_feet.png:

../_images/swh_North_Pacific_difficulty_index_12_00_feet.png

swh_North_Pacific_difficulty_index_9_00_feet.png:

../_images/swh_North_Pacific_difficulty_index_9_00_feet.png