.. _taup_curve:

----------
TauP Curve
----------

TauP Curve creates a xy plot of seismic phases, usually time versus distance.
This can be used to create the familar travel time curves, but for
only the specified phases and depth. The curves are linearly interpolated
between known sample points, and can thus be used to get a feel for the
coarseness of sampling. For example, curves for s, S, ScS and Sdiff
for a 500 kilometer deep event in PREM could be generated by:

.. literalinclude:: examples/taup_curve_--mod_prem_-h_500_-p_s_S_ScS_Sdiff_--gmt.cmd
  :language: text

The :code:`-gmt` option prepends a GMT :code:`psxy` command to the output
file, creating a runnable script instead of just a data file.
The output is put in taup_curve.gmt by default, so to view the results:

:code:`sh taup_curve.gmt`

and you have a plot of the wavefronts in "taup_curve.pdf".

Alternatively, using --svg will generate an SVG plot of the same curves:

.. literalinclude:: examples/taup_curve_--mod_prem_-h_500_-p_s_S_ScS_Sdiff_--legend_--svg.cmd
  :language: text

and results in

.. raw:: html
    :file:  examples/taup_curve_--mod_prem_-h_500_-p_s_S_ScS_Sdiff_--legend_--svg

Other paramaters besides distance vs time can be plotted using the `-x`
and `-y` options. For example tau vs ray parameter with:

.. literalinclude:: examples/taup_curve_-x_rayparamdeg_-y_tau_--legend_--svg.cmd
  :language: text

.. raw:: html
    :file:  examples/taup_curve_-x_rayparamdeg_-y_tau_--legend_--svg

Note that these images are inteded to be a quick, basic view into the results,
and in most cases you may need to manually edit them in order to fix issues
related to titles, labels and other image issues.

The usage is:

.. literalinclude:: cmdLineHelp/taup_curve.usage
  :language: text