Combining Map with Surface Plot

I just acquired the Mapping Toolbox so that I could add maps to some figures I have made using Matlab.

Here is my working code to generate a crude (no titles or other extras for simplicity) 4 panel plot of my data

figure; set(subplot(2,2,1),'Position', [0.05, 0.55, 0.45, 0.4]); surf(Uwin,'EdgeColor','none'); 
set(gca, 'FontSize', 17); hold on;
set(subplot(2,2,2),'Position', [0.55, 0.55, 0.45, 0.4]); surf(Vwin,'EdgeColor','none'); 
set(gca, 'FontSize', 17); hold on; 
set(subplot(2,2,3),'Position', [0.05, 0.05, 0.45, 0.4]); surf(Usum,'EdgeColor','none'); 
set(gca, 'FontSize', 17); hold on; 
set(subplot(2,2,4),'Position', [0.55, 0.05, 0.45, 0.4]); surf(Vsum,'EdgeColor','none'); 
set(gca, 'FontSize', 17); hold off;

Here is working code to generate a 4-panel plot of the map I need

figure; set(subplot(2,2,1),'Position', [0.04, 0.56, 0.45, 0.5]); hold on;
coast=load('coast'); 
axesm('eqdcylin','origin',[0 180 0],'MapLatLimit',[0 90]); gridm on; 
geoshow(coast.lat,coast.long, 'Color', 'black'); 
tightmap;
set(subplot(2,2,2),'Position', [0.54, 0.56, 0.45, 0.5]);
coast=load('coast'); 
axesm('eqdcylin','origin',[0 180 0],'MapLatLimit',[0 90]); gridm on; 
geoshow(coast.lat,coast.long, 'Color', 'black'); tightmap;
set(subplot(2,2,3),'Position', [0.04, 0.07, 0.45, 0.5]);
coast=load('coast'); 
axesm('eqdcylin','origin',[0 180 0],'MapLatLimit',[0 90]); gridm on; 
geoshow(coast.lat,coast.long, 'Color', 'black'); tightmap;
set(subplot(2,2,4),'Position', [0.54, 0.07, 0.45, 0.5]);
coast=load('coast'); 
axesm('eqdcylin','origin',[0 180 0],'MapLatLimit',[0 90]); gridm on; 
geoshow(coast.lat,coast.long, 'Color', 'black'); tightmap; hold off;

What is the best way to get MATLAB to overlay my data over my map using MATLAB 2015a, while preserving the subplot (4-panel) structure?

Thank you very much, Evan Kutta

Answer 1

[Kelly Kearney]

All the map plotting functions plot to the current axis, regardless of whether it's a subplot or not. So to plot to specific ones, either make sure your desired subplot is the current axis, or pass (... 'parent', mysubax) as properties.

Do you have coordinates to go along with your plotted arrays, or are you just assuming they fill the full global space? I'm assuming the latter in this example. Also, I cleaned up some of the unnecessary code (the limits and origin you specified are the defaults, and subplot is unnecessary when you're passing specific axes coordinates).

[Uwin, Vwin, Usum, Vsum] = deal(rand(50,100)); % placeholders for your data

lt = linspace(-90, 90, size(Uwin,1));
ln = linspace(-180, 180, size(Uwin,2));

data = {Uwin, Vwin, Usum, Vsum};

pos = [...
    0.04, 0.56, 0.45, 0.5
    0.54, 0.56, 0.45, 0.5
    0.04, 0.07, 0.45, 0.5
    0.54, 0.07, 0.45, 0.5];

for ii = 1:4
    ax(ii) = axes('position', pos(ii,:));
    axesm('eqdcylin');
    gridm on; 
    surfm(lt, ln, data{ii});
    geoshow(coast, 'color', 'k');
    tightmap;
end

[Evan Kutta]

Thank you very much, fixed my problem and helped me write cleaner code!