HYSPLIT Forum: hysplitbbs.arl.noaa.gov

Does anyone have experience taking Hysplit output and plotting it in Matlab or grads? I am interested to know what it would take.

There is a postprocessor that will convert the HYSPLIT output (cdump) file into NetCDF format. It is called conc2api and it is located under the cmaq subdirectory.
My understanding is that Grads can read NetCDF format.

For Matlab users:

The user should use the ascii outputs converted from the cdump files using con2asc and upload them into Matlab using the text reading functions such as importdata and textdata. The user should decide what type of output Hysplit should generate : an file with with only non-zero data (ie data in the grid cell where there is pollutant) or a file with data for the whole domain (ie data is reported in all grid cell in the domain with zeros where there are no pollutants). The main advantage is file size but the non-zero data file requires a bit more work in Matlab. The user must also know how to build the lat/lon domain within Matlab. All is doable with Matlab and it does not require major programing but it does require being good at handling indexes and matrixes.

Try selecting "Include Minutes" under Concentration/Utilities/Convert to/ASCII menu.

You should get a file for each output interval. Are you only getting one output file?