.. _task_timeSeriesSeaIceAreaVol:

timeSeriesSeaIceAreaVol
=======================

An analysis task for plotting time series of sea ice area and volume for both
the Arctic and Antarctic against observations.

Component and Tags::

  component: seaIce
  tags: timeSeries, publicObs

Configuration Options
---------------------

The following configuration options are available for this task::

  [timeSeriesSeaIceAreaVol]
  ## options related to plotting time series of sea ice area and volume

  # compare to observations?
  compareWithObservations = True
  # Number of points over which to compute moving average (e.g., for monthly
  # output, movingAveragePoints=12 corresponds to a 12-month moving average
  # window)
  movingAveragePoints = 1
  # title font properties
  titleFontSize = 18
  # plot on polar plot
  polarPlot = False

  # An optional first year for the tick marks on the x axis. Leave commented out
  # to start at the beginning of the time series.

  # firstYearXTicks = 1

  # An optional number of years between tick marks on the x axis.  Leave
  # commented out to determine the distance between ticks automatically.

  # yearStrideXTicks = 1

  # observations files
  areaNH = IceArea_timeseries/iceAreaNH_climo_20180710.nc
  areaSH = IceArea_timeseries/iceAreaSH_climo_20180710.nc
  volNH = PIOMAS/PIOMASvolume_monthly_climo_20180710.nc
  volSH = none

``compareWithObservations`` can be set to ``False`` to disable comparison with
both sets of observations (see below).

The title font size can be customized with ``titleFontSize``, given in points.

To produce polar plots (with time progressing clockwise around the origin and
sea ice area or volume the distance from the origin) in addition to the
typical time series with time on the x axis, set ``polarPlot = True``.

The ability to modify observations files pointed to by ``areaNH``, ``areaSH``,
``volNH`` and ``volSH`` is provided for debugging purposes and these options
should typically remain unchanged.

For details on the remaining config options, see:
 * :ref:`config_moving_average`
 * :ref:`config_time_axis_ticks`

Observations
------------

* :ref:`ssmi_ice_area`
* :ref:`piomass_ice_volume`

Example Result
--------------

.. image:: examples/ice_area_nh.png
   :width: 500 px
   :align: center