Lesson 5: Analyzing Any or All Stations

Estimated time to complete: 30-90 minutes
In this final exercise, you’ll take what you learned in the previous lesson to build a function (plot_station_data.m, which has been started for you) that can process any or all station data in your /Data folder. In completing this function, you will demonstrate the true value of using a scripted approach to create automated, repeatable, and extensible analyses.

By the end of this lesson, you will have created the following required deliverable:

• A function called plot_station_data.m.

Video

Direct link to video.

1. Setup

1. Make sure your Working Directory is set to / > MATLAB Drive > iSci3A12-SciProgramming. This is where we will run our scripts and analyses.
2. In MATLAB, open the file plot_station_data.m. This function has been partially completed for you. Your tasks are described below:

2. Your tasks

In the last lesson, you created a script that processes and plots station data for a single station using a set reference period to calculate anomalies (i.e. 1951-1980). But what if you wanted to do the same analysis for other sites? For all sites? What if you wanted to change the reference period and run it again? This is where creating a function (where those preferences can be entered as inputs) becomes valuable.

In this task, you need to complete the code in plot_station_data so that the function:

• Allows a user to select one site to analyze by entering the name of a station’s data file as it appears in /Data (e.g. Adelaide Airport.csv, Almaty.csv, etc.). Internally, this is assigned to the station_name variable.
• Allows a user to process all site data in /Data at once (in a loop) if they enter 'all' in the place of a station file name.
• Allows a user to specify the start (ref_start) and end (end_year) years for the reference period for calculating anomalies.
• Similar to the previous lesson, creates two png figures for each site:
  • A timeseries figure named <stationName>_timeseries.png, where <stationName> is the file name of the station data file, and
  • A barcode figure named <stationName>_barcode.png, where <stationName> is the file name of the station data file.
• Is properly commented in the top section and throughout the function.
  
  NOTE that the function declaration for plot_station_data has already been created to accommodate the inputs defined above:

  function [] = plot_station_data_soln(station_name, ref_start, ref_end)
  

2.1 Hints

• When you are ready to test your function, run each of the following lines in the Command Window separately to see if they create the desired outputs:
  • plot_station_data('Almaty', 1961, 1990)
  • plot_station_data('Karlstad', 1971, 2000)
  • plot_station_data('all', 1971, 2000)

3. Deliverables

• Ensure that all changes to your function plot_station_data is saved.
• NOTE that you are submitting the function and not the outputs (Jay is going to run the script on his computer to evaluate that it creates the proper outputs).

4. (Oh no, not another) Reflection

Don’t worry too much. This one is short and sweet. In 100 words or less, I would like to know what you thought of the workshop and the programming experience. Was this a useful exercise? Do you see the benefits of taking a scripted approach to analysis? What was/wasn’t useful? Is there anything that you would have liked to have done differently? Add your reflection to the reflection.md file in your assignment GitHub repository.

5. Ready to submit?

Go to the submission page to prepare to submit your assignment.

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