uxarray.UxDataArray.zonal_mean

uxarray.UxDataArray.zonal_mean#

UxDataArray.zonal_mean(lat=(-90, 90, 10), conservative=False, **kwargs)#

Compute non-conservative or conservative averages of a face-centered variable along lines of constant latitude or latitude bands.

A zonal mean in UXarray operates differently depending on the conservative flag:

  • Non-conservative: Calculates the mean by sampling face values at specific latitude lines and weighting each contribution by the length of the line where each face intersects that latitude.

  • Conservative: Preserves integral quantities by calculating the mean by sampling face values within latitude bands and weighting contributions by their area overlap with latitude bands.

Parameters:

  • lat (tuple, float, or array-like, default=(-90, 90, 10)) –

    Latitude specification:

    • tuple (start, end, step): For non-conservative, computes means at intervals of step.

    For conservative, creates band edges via np.arange(start, end+step, step). - float: Single latitude for non-conservative averaging - array-like: For non-conservative, latitudes to sample. For conservative, band edges.

  • conservative (bool, default=False) – If True, performs conservative (area-weighted) zonal averaging over latitude bands. If False, performs non-conservative (intersection-weighted) averaging at latitude lines.

Returns:

Contains zonal means with a new ‘latitudes’ dimension and corresponding coordinates. Name will be original_name + ‘_zonal_mean’ or ‘zonal_mean’ if unnamed.

Return type:

UxDataArray

Examples

# Non-conservative averaging from -90° to 90° at 10° intervals by default >>> uxds[“var”].zonal_mean()

# Single latitude (non-conservative) over 30° latitude >>> uxds[“var”].zonal_mean(lat=30.0)

# Conservative averaging over latitude bands >>> uxds[“var”].zonal_mean(lat=(-60, 60, 10), conservative=True)

# Conservative with explicit band edges >>> uxds[“var”].zonal_mean(lat=[-90, -30, 0, 30, 90], conservative=True)

Notes

Only supported for face-centered data variables.

Conservative averaging preserves integral quantities and is recommended for physical analysis. Non-conservative averaging samples at latitude lines.

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