[Met_help] verifying upper-level wind speed with PointStat

[Joe Olson]

I'm trying to verify 300, 500, 700, 850, and 925 mb wind speeds from  
WRF-ARW v3.0 and using METv1.1 (PointStat).

I have performed the following to prepare the prepbufr:
1) cwordsh block prepbufr_file prepbufr_file.blk
2) Converted Prepbufr to netcdf:
        /METdir/bin/pb2nc prepbufr_file.blk prepbufr.ncdf / 
METconfigdir/PB2NCConfig

Then, convert wrfouts (netcdf) to an A-grid (grib)
3) run_wrfpost
    This outputs my wrfprs_d01.XX file.
     In the wrf_cntrl.parm configuration file, I made sure to specify  
winds on pressure surfaces:

  (U WIND ON PRESS SFCS) SCAL=( 4.0)
  L=(11111 11111 11111 11111 11111 11111 11111 11111 11111 10000 00000  
00000 00000 00000)
  (V WIND ON PRESS SFCS) SCAL=( 4.0)
  L=(11111 11111 11111 11111 11111 11111 11111 11111 11111 10000 00000  
00000 00000 00000)

(I do not see any wind speed variables...)

Then, when running PointStat with the output from (2) and (3) and  
using the following edits to the config file:

vx_grib_code[] = [ "WIND/P300","WIND/P500","WIND/P700","WIND/ 
P850","WIND/P925"];
thresholds[] = [ "gt0", "gt0", "gt0", "gt0", "gt0"];
message_type[] = [ "ADPUPA" ];

I get the requested mpr output file, however, the model winds do not  
compare well with that seen in the wrfouts (via ncview). The  
observations, on the other hand, seem reasonable (soundings had wind  
speeds ~25 m/s). Here's a sample output for a single station in alaska:

VERSION MODEL FCST_LEAD FCST_VALID      OBTYPE VX_MASK       
TYPE                           VAR       LEVEL        =  
TOTAL           INDEX           OBS_LAT         OBS_LON          
OBS_LVL         OBS_ELV         FCST            OBS              
CLIMO           INTERP_MTHD     INTERP_PNTS
V1.1    WRF   000000    20081229_120000 ADPUPA FULL          
MPR                            WIND      P300-300     =  
13              9               60.79000        -161.84000       
300.00000       -9999           1.80940         25.65638         
-9999           DW_MEAN         4
V1.1    WRF   000000    20081229_120000 ADPUPA FULL          
MPR                            WIND      P500-500     =  
13              9               60.79000        -161.84000       
500.00000       -9999           2.47792         23.65354         
-9999           DW_MEAN         4
V1.1    WRF   000000    20081229_120000 ADPUPA FULL          
MPR                            WIND      P700-700     =  
13              9               60.79000        -161.84000       
700.00000       -9999           1.22441         24.68299         
-9999           DW_MEAN         4
V1.1    WRF   000000    20081229_120000 ADPUPA FULL          
MPR                            WIND      P850-850     =  
13              9               60.79000        -161.84000       
850.00000       -9999           2.20001         26.26119         
-9999           DW_MEAN         4
V1.1    WRF   000000    20081229_120000 ADPUPA FULL          
MPR                            WIND      P925-925     =  
13              9               60.79000        -161.84000       
925.00000       -9999           1.19297         24.67387         
-9999           DW_MEAN         4

using the "-v 3" option with point_stat shows that the "Grib Record  
Index" is never ==32, which I *think* it should be if wind speed is to  
be used. My guess is that I am missing the wind speed variable in my  
wrf_cntrl.parm configuration file...(?) Also, if I use copygb to strip  
down the grib file [output from (3)] such that it only contains  
pressure level data (i.e. copygb.exe -k'5*-1 100' -x WRFgrib_ALL  
WRFgrib_PRS), I still have the same problem, so I don't think its  
using the wrong vertical scale (like meters above ground level).


thanks,
-joe