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dim_avg_Wrap

Computes the average of a variable's rightmost dimension at all other dimensions and retains metadata.

Prototype

load "$NCARG_ROOT/lib/ncarg/nclscripts/csm/contributed.ncl"

	function dim_avg_Wrap (
		x  : numeric   
	)

	return_val  :  float or double

Arguments

A variable of numeric type and any dimensionality.

Return value

The output will be double if x is double, and float otherwise.

The output dimensionality is the same as the first n-2 dimensions of the input variable. That is, the dimension rank of the input variable will be reduced by one.

Description

Computes the average of all elements of the n-1th (rightmost) dimension for each index of the dimensions 0...n-2 and retains metadata. A wrapper function. Missing values are ignored.

Use dim_avg_n_Wrap if you want to specify which dimensions to do the average across.

Examples

Example 1

Create a variable (q) of size (3,5,10) array. Then calculate the average of the rightmost dimension.

    q    = random_uniform(-20,100,(/3,5,10/))
    qAvg = dim_avg(q)   ;==>  qAvg(3,5)

Example 2

Let z be of size (ntim,nlat,mlon) and with named dimensions "time", "lat" and "lon", respectively. Then, for each time and latitude, the zonal mean (i.e., average of all non-missing longitudes) is:

    zAvgLon = dim_avg( z )    ; ==> zAvgLon(ntim,nlat)

Generally, users prefer that the returned variable have metadata associated with it. This can be accomplished via the dim_avg_Wrap function:

    zAvgLon = dim_avg_Wrap( x )    ; ==> zAvgLon(time,lat)

Example 3

Let z be defined as in Example 2: z(time,lat,lon). Compute the time average of at each latitude/longitude grid point. Use NCL's Named Subscripting to reorder the input array such that "time" is the rightmost dimension.

Note: in V5.1.1, you will be able to use dim_avg_n_Wrap to avoid having to reorder your data.

    zAvgTime = dim_avg( z(lat|:, lon|:, time|:) )    ; ==> zAvgTime(nlat,nlon)

    zAvgTime = dim_avg_n( z, 0 )                     ; no reordering needed

If metadata is desired use