subplots with different colormaps matlab

Question

I am trying to make a graph with two different contourf subplots that use completely different colormaps. However with the code I currently have (which creates a custom colormap for one of the subplots), the subplots come out with the same colormap. Any ideas how to fix this?

h = figure;
subplot(2,1,1)
title('GEFS 20 Member Mean Vorticity');
axesm('eqdcylin','maplonlimit',[-180 179],'maplatlimit',[0 90]);
%eqdcylin
contourm(gLat, gLon, squeeze(meanhx(x,:,:))', 16,'Color',[0.05 0.05 0.05],'LineWidth',2);
hold on
contourfm(gLat, gLon, squeeze(vmeanx(x,:,:))', 30, 'LineStyle', 'none'); 
shading flat;
lm=worldlo('POline');
  for i=1:length(lm);
  lm(i).otherproperty = {'color','m','LineWidth',1.5};
  end
displaym(lm);
gridm on;
tightmap;
set(h, 'Position', [1 1 2200 1100]);
colormap(b2r(-5*10^-5, 5*10^-5));
freezeColors;
cbfreeze(colorbar)




%caxis([-5*10^-5 5*10^-5])

colorbar;


subplot(2,1,2)
title('GEFS 20 Member Vorticity Variance');
axesm('eqdcylin','maplonlimit',[-180 179],'maplatlimit',[0 90]);
%eqdcylin
contourm(gLat, gLon, squeeze(meanhx(x,:,:))', 16,'Color',[0.05 0.05 0.05],'LineWidth',2);
hold on
contourfm(gLat, gLon, squeeze(vvarx(x,:,:))', 30, 'LineStyle', 'none'); 
shading flat;
lm=worldlo('POline');
  for i=1:length(lm);
  lm(i).otherproperty = {'color','m','LineWidth',1.5};
  end 
displaym(lm);
gridm on;
tightmap;
set(h, 'Position', [1 1 2200 1100]);

mycmap = [
0.9961    0.9961    0.9961;
0.6641    0.6641    0.9974;
0.3320    0.3320    0.9987;
     0         0    1.0000;
     0    0.2500    1.0000;
     0    0.5000    1.0000;
     0    0.7500    1.0000;
     0    1.0000    1.0000;
0.2000    1.0000    0.8000;
0.4000    1.0000    0.6000;
0.6000    1.0000    0.4000;
0.8000    1.0000    0.2000;
1.0000    1.0000         0;
1.0000    0.9333         0;
1.0000    0.8667         0;
1.0000    0.8000         0;
1.0000    0.7333         0;
1.0000    0.6667         0;
1.0000    0.6000         0;
1.0000    0.5333         0;
1.0000    0.4667         0;
1.0000    0.4000         0;
1.0000    0.3333         0;
1.0000    0.2667         0;
1.0000    0.2000         0;
1.0000    0.1333         0;
1.0000    0.0667         0;
1.0000         0         0;
0.9854         0         0;
0.9708         0         0;
0.9561         0         0;
0.9415         0         0;
0.9269         0         0;
0.9123         0         0;
0.8977         0         0;
0.8830         0         0;
0.8684         0         0;
0.8538         0         0;
0.8392         0         0;
0.8246         0         0;
0.8099         0         0;
0.7953         0         0;
0.7807         0         0;
0.7661         0         0;
0.7515         0         0;
0.7368         0         0;
0.7222         0         0;
0.7092         0         0;
0.6961         0         0;
0.6830         0         0;
0.6699         0         0;
0.6569         0         0;
0.6438         0         0;
0.6307         0         0;
0.6176         0         0;
0.6046         0         0;
0.5915         0         0;
0.5784         0         0;
0.5654         0         0;
0.5523         0         0;
0.5392         0         0;
0.5261         0         0;
0.5131         0         0;
0.5000         0         0;
];

colormap(mycmap);






freezeColors;
cbfreeze(colorbar);


set(gcf, 'renderer', 'zbuffer');

Answer 1

If you have the Image Processing toolbox, you can use the function subimage to display images with their respective colormaps:

X1=imread('http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Burosch_Blue-Only_Test_pattern.jpg');
X2=imread('http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Romsey_River_Test.jpg');
subplot(1,2,1), subimage(X1)
subplot(1,2,2), subimage(X2)

Result:

Edit there is a more complete answer to this question here.

Answer 2

EDIT: it seems, that the documentation is wrong! See comments!

By using the second argument of the colormap function, one should be able to assign a specific colormap to a specific (sub-)plot or axes, if you want to call it like that:

Referring to TMW: colormap:

Be aware that the first argument is the handle to the axes!

colormap(ax,map)

sets the colormap for the axes specified by ax. Each axes within a figure can have a unique colormap. After you set an axes colormap, changing the figure colormap does not affect the axes.

How to get the handle of the axes?:

when plotting with plot(x,y..) you get it as the return-value. Catch it with:

ax = plot(x,y..)

For other plot-functions, as you seem to use, you should find some info about that within the doku.

Answer 3

If you upgrade to MATLAB 2017a, you can assign a colormap to each axes object using the syntax colormap(axesHandle, cMap)