rvn_met_recordplot {RavenR}

EC Climate Gauge Record Overlap Visualization

Description

This function plots the length of Environment Canada climate station records, accessed via the weathercan package, to identify periods in which multiple station records overlap.

Usage

rvn_met_recordplot(
  metadata = NULL,
  stndata = NULL,
  variables = NULL,
  colorby = NULL
)

Arguments

metadata

tibble of the station meta-data from weathercan::stations_search()

stndata

tibble of the station data from weathercan::weather_dl(). Used in conjunction with variables argument.

variables

if using weathercan::weather_dl(), column names for variables of interest (currently only accepts 1 per call)

colorby

column name by which to color station records. Set to 'elev' (elevation) by default. Can be set to "dist" (distance from coordinates of interest) if supplying weathercan::stations_search results.

Details

Accepts outputs from either the stations_search() or weather_dl() functions from the weathercan package and extracts the start and end dates of the record from each station for plotting.

Outputs from stations_search() indicate when data collection at a station generally began but do not contain information for specific climate variables and thus should only be used for a "first look". Plots created with station metadata do not refer to specific climate variables.

Station records are plotted chronologically on a timeline, and can be colored according to either the station's elevation (default, works for both types of inputs) or the station's distance from a point of interest (works only when supplying stations_search() results as metadata input).

The timeline plot is accompanied by a bar plot counting the number of stations with available data year by year.

Large differences in elevation between stations may point towards consideration for the effect of lapse rates on climate forcings driving a model response.

Value

returns a 2x1 plot object containing 2 ggplot objects

top:

A chronological horizontal bar plot depicting each station's record period

bottom:

A vertical bar plot depicting the number of station records available each year

Examples

# load metadata from RavenR sample data
data(rvn_weathercan_metadata_sample)

## code that would be used to download metadata using weathercan
# library(weathercan)
#
# metadata = stations_search(coords=c(50.109,-120.787),
#    dist=150, # EC stations 150 km of Merritt, BC
#   interval='day'
# )
# metadata = metadata[metadata$start>=2000,] # subset stations with recent data
# metadata = metadata[1:3,] # take only the first 3 stations for brevity

# plot line colours by station elevation
rvn_met_recordplot(metadata=rvn_weathercan_metadata_sample, colorby='elev')

# plot line colours by distance to specified co-ordinates
rvn_met_recordplot(metadata=rvn_weathercan_metadata_sample, colorby='distance')

## load sample weathercan::weather_dl() with single station
data(rvn_weathercan_sample)

# compare records for a specific variable
rvn_met_recordplot(stndata=rvn_weathercan_sample, variables = "total_precip")