| iTool User's Guide: Working with Vectors |

## Introduction

The IDL iVector tool displays data in vector form. A vector is a line segment that has both length (magnitude) and direction. Magnitude and direction are expressed using two components, the "east-west" component (or U) and the "north-south" component (or V).

The iVector tool displays two-dimensional vector flow fields. Examples of data that can be visualized using vector flow fields are ocean currents, wind, and fluid flows. Data can be visualized as vectors (arrows), wind barbs, or streamlines, and can be located on a regular or irregular grid or can be georeferenced. You can control all aspects of these visualizations, including arrow style and size, coloring by magnitude, direction, or another dataset, data location, missing data, streamline particles, and subsampling.

For more information about importing vector data see Importing and Exporting Data.

Note For more information on accepted arguments, see IVECTOR.

The iVector tool can be launched in the following ways:

- At the IDL Command Line without arguments or keywords

- At the IDL Command Line with arguments or keywords

- Through the File New Visualization iVector menu option in the IDL Development Environment

- Through the File New iVector menu option in an iTool

IDL Online Help (March 01, 2006)