load "$NCARG_ROOT/lib/ncarg/nclscripts/csm/gsn_code.ncl" load "$NCARG_ROOT/lib/ncarg/nclscripts/csm/gsn_csm.ncl" begin ;=================================================; ; open file and read in data ;=================================================; f = addfile("/home/saeed/lorestan/input/lorestan_DOMAIN000.nc","r") t = f->topo ; You don't need the "(:,:)" to get the whole array. wks = gsn_open_wks("ps","gsn_contour") res = True res@cnFillOn = True ; turn on color res@cnLineLabelsOn = False ; no contour line labels plot = gsn_csm_contour_map(wks,t,res) ; contour the variable end