## tmave()

This function does time averaging while applying a mask. The syntax is:

`tmave(maskexpr,expr,timexpr1,timexpr2)`

where:

`maskexpr` - the mask expression; when evaluated at a fixed time, it must give a single value
`expr` - the expression to be averaged
`timexpr1,2` - the limits of the time averaging domain

### Usage Notes

1. This function works similarly to the `ave` function, except for the masking. Using `tmave` is much more efficient than using `maskout` with `ave`).

2. The function loops through the specified time steps, and evaluates `maskexpr` at each fixed time. `maskexpr` must yeild a single value. If this value is the undefined/missing data value, then `expr` for that time is not included in the average.

3. If `maskexpr` is not the undefined data value, it is used as the weight for `expr` in the average. So if you define `maskexpr` accordingly, you can use the `tmave` function to do weighted time averaging.

4. The tricky aspect of using `tmave` is setting up `maskexpr`. If `expr` is a grid with X and/or Y and/or Z varying, then `maskexpr` *MUST* refer to either a defined variable or a file with only time varying. In general, you have to set up `maskexpr` in advance.

### Examples

1. Say you want to average `slp` over some time range but only when `sst` over some region is above some value. You can do this by:

       set x 1
       set y 1
       set t 1 last
       define sstmask = aave(sst,lon=-180,lon=-90,lat=-20,lat=20)
       define sstmask = const(maskout(sstmask,sstmask-25.0),1)

   Now `sstmask` is a time series where the value is 1 when the `sst` areal average is above 25 and undefined when the value is below 25. `maskout` set the values below 25 to missing; `const` set the non-missing values to 1. We can now do our `tmave`:

       set lon -180 -90
       set lat -20 20
       set t 1
       d tmave(sstmask,slp,t=1,t=last)

2. The mask could also be written to a file with all dimensions nonvarying except for time. Here is what some of the records in the data descriptor file might look like:

       dset maskfilename
       xdef 1 linear 1 1
       ydef 1 linear 1 1
       zdef 1 linear 1 1
       tdef 100 linear
       ....