======================================================
SkewT -- Atmospheric Profile Plotting and Diagnostics
======================================================

SkewT provides a few useful tools to help with the plotting and analysis of 
upper atmosphere data. In particular it provides some useful classes to 
handle the awkward skew-x projection (provided by Ryan May, see notes in 
source code and LICENSE.txt).

It's most basic implementation is to read a text file of the format provided 
by the University of Wyoming's website: 

http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.html

Typical usage often looks like this::

    #!/usr/bin/env python

    from skewt import SkewT
    sounding = SkewT.Sounding(filename="soundingdata.txt")
    sounding.plot_skewt()

Alternatively you may input the required data fields in a dictionary. The 
dictionary must have as a minimum the fields PRES and TEMP corresponding to 
pressure (hPa) and temperature (deg C). Soundings will typically have a dew 
point temperature trace and wind barbs as well, so it's best to include the 
dewpoint temp DWPT (deg C), wind speed SKNT (knots) and wind direction in 
degrees WDIR. Other fields may be included as per the docstring::

    #!/usr/bin/env python

    from skewt import SkewT
    sounding = SkewT.Sounding(data=data_dict)
    sounding.plot_skewt

Sounding Files
==============
The format for the sounding files is very specific (sorry). You are best off 
using the example in "examples" as a template.

Contributors
==============
The initial SkewX classes were provided by a fellow called Ryan May who was 
a student at OU. I have not made contact with Ryan other than to download 
his scripts and modify them for my own purposes.

Hamish Ramsay has promised to at least think about adding some extra 
diagnostics.
