[Met_help] Re: MET error

Lacey Holland lholland at ucar.edu
Mon Oct 8 14:24:15 MDT 2007


Hi, Luke!

Just reading through the description of that prepbufr dataset, it looks 
like an excellent archive data source to use for verifying model runs in 
non-CONUS regions.  I think it's been quality-controlled by the GFS 
analysis, so it should work great for your purposes.  Nice find!


Thanks for passing this along! 
--Lacey Holland



John Halley Gotway wrote:
> Luke,
>
> The accumulation interval is meant for precipitation fields.  If you use a utility like 'wgrib' to dump the contents of a grib file you may find precipitation fields with different accumulation
> intervals.  For example, a single grib file may contain accumulated precipitation (APCP or grib code 61) with accumulation intervals of 1 hour and 24 hours.  So specifying "61/A24" or equivalently
> "APCP/A24" would select out the 24 hour accumulated precip field.
>
> I suppose you could try to use point_stat to compare precip to gauge data, but I'm really not sure if gauge data is available in the PrepBufr files.  If you'd like to compare gridded precip to gridded
> observations like StageII or StageIV analysis, you could use the grid_stat or mode tools.
>
> As for the observation files, in the MET beta release we're only supporting point observation data in PrepBufr format.  We realize that this is a limitation, and we've received requests from users to
> support additional point observation formats.  We'll be adding support for the ObsProc (formatted ascii) observation format used by data assimilation folks in the near future.  And we may add support
> for additional observation formats based on user feedback.
>
> I do know that the PrepBufr data available from NCEP contains observations from outside of CONUS.  But as for the appropriateness of using the NCDC data, I'll defer to a scientist in our group, Lacey
> Holland, who I've copied on this email.
>
> Thanks,
> John
>
> Luke Peffers wrote:
>   
>> Hello John, I have a couple quick questions for you regarding my ongoing MET
>> experimentation:
>>
>> In the MET point_stat config file, there is an option for comparing
>> observations of accumulation intervals (i.e. ANNN).  I am unclear as to what
>> the accumulation interval should be set to for comparing various
>> observations.  What could this be used for and how does one determine what
>> to set the interval, ANNN, to?
>>
>> Also, I am interested in WRF verification in non CONUS regions of the
>> world.  I have found a PREPBUFR dataset from NCDC (DSI-6116
>> http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/documentlibrary/tddoc/td6116.pdf ) ,
>> which I hope will include enough observations to make a sound statistical
>> comparison with my WRF run. I would like to know if you are aware of any
>> other global datasets that can be used with MET point-stat and if not, what
>> do you think of a dataset such as the above mentioned?
>>
>> Thank you for all your time and assistance.
>>
>> Luke Peffers
>> FSU
>>
>> On 10/5/07, Luke Peffers <luke.peffers at gmail.com> wrote:
>>     
>>> Thanks John, I realized that there may be an issue with sample size since
>>> I am trying to verify at 6Z.  I now know to use the most robust  sounding
>>> data which is included in the 00Z and 12Z obs.  My mistake, but I'm glad my
>>> amateurism is contributing to your work!  I'm happy to help.
>>>
>>> Luke
>>>
>>>
>>> On 10/5/07, John Halley Gotway <johnhg at rap.ucar.edu> wrote:
>>>       
>>>> Luke,
>>>>
>>>> This is good stuff.  I'm glad you caught this error.  What's happening
>>>> is that we're computing statistics for a sample size of only 1!  When we go
>>>> to compute confidence intervals, needless to say,
>>>> there are problems.  I've added checks to only compute confidence
>>>> intervals when the sample size is large enough to do so.
>>>>
>>>> However, we're leaving it up to the users to interpret their
>>>> results.  For example, if you have a confidence interval computed for a very
>>>> small sample size (under 10), I wouldn't trust it very much.
>>>>
>>>> I've attached an updated version of the file "point_stat.cc".  You can
>>>> use it to replace the version in METv0.9/src/point_stat.  Then at the
>>>> top-level, do a "make clean" followed by a "make >&
>>>> make_met.log".
>>>>
>>>> Let me know if you run into other problems.  I'll include these changes
>>>> in the development version of MET so that they appear in the next official
>>>> release.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for finding this bug Luke.  We really appreciate it.
>>>>
>>>> John
>>>>
>>>> Luke Peffers wrote:
>>>>         
>>>>> Ok John, I have "put" the data you requested in your directory via
>>>>>           
>>>> ftp.  As
>>>>         
>>>>> for the point_stat statement, I did enter it correctly but goofed when
>>>>>           
>>>> I
>>>>         
>>>>> typed the email.  Too bad that wasn't the only problem.  Please let me
>>>>>           
>>>> know
>>>>         
>>>>> what you find.
>>>>>
>>>>> Luke Peffers
>>>>> FSU
>>>>>
>>>>> On 10/4/07, John Halley Gotway <johnhg at rap.ucar.edu> wrote:
>>>>>           
>>>>>> Luke,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I haven't seen that error message before.  One thing to point out
>>>>>> though... If you look at the usage statement for point_stat, you'll
>>>>>>             
>>>> see
>>>>         
>>>>>> that it's expecting the "model" name to be listed as the 3rd
>>>>>>             
>>>> argument.  So
>>>>         
>>>>>> you should running the command as:
>>>>>> /point_stat ./WRFPRS_d01.72  ./OBS_10_01_06.nc WRF_SingleG -config
>>>>>> PointStatConfig_default
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Otherwise, it'll think the model name is "-config".  I should
>>>>>>             
>>>> probably
>>>>         
>>>>>> make the argument processing smarter than that to skip the optional
>>>>>> arguments.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Anyway, I'm guessing I'll need to run the data you're using to try to
>>>>>> reproduce the error.  Would you be able to post those files to the
>>>>>>             
>>>> FTP
>>>>         
>>>>>> site again?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'd need the 3 files:
>>>>>> WRFPRS_d01.72
>>>>>> OBS_10_01_06.nc
>>>>>> PointStatConfig_default
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Please let me know when they're up there, and I'll give it a shot.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>> John
>>>>>>
>>>>>>             
>>>>>>> Hello John:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I have another error for you.  I received this one with this
>>>>>>>               
>>>> command:
>>>>         
>>>>>>> ./point_stat ./WRFPRS_d01.72     ./OBS_10_01_06.nc     -config
>>>>>>> ./PointStatConfig_default     WRF_SingleG
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> gsl: beta.c:56: ERROR: domain error
>>>>>>> Default GSL error handler invoked.
>>>>>>> Abort
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Do you know where things may have gone wrong?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Luke Peffers
>>>>>>> FSU
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>               


-- 
____________________________
Lacey Holland

UCAR/NCAR, Research Applications Laboratory
P.O. Box 3000
Boulder, CO  80307
(303) 497-8396



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