[Met_help] Several questions about MET

[Jan Ploski]

Hello,

I have several questions about METv1.0 that are not covered by the
FAQ/known issues sections of the web page. I'm interested in getting
grid_stat working and having some initial setup problems.

1. Running the tests after the build produces the error reproduced
below. I also get the same error when trying to run grid_stat. I suspect
that it may have something to do with my compilation settings.
Everything except for the GSL library was compiled with PGI - GSL was
compiled with GNU - could this be the cause? Which steps would you
recommend to diagnose this problem further?

*** Running GRID_STAT using netCDF input for both forecast and
observation ***
Forecast File: ../out/pcp_combine/sample_fcst_12L_2005080712V_12A.nc
Observation File: ../out/pcp_combine/sample_obs_2005080712V_12A.nc
Configuration File: config/GridStatConfig_APCP_12
NetCDF Precipitation (min, max) = (0, 38.8841)
NetCDF Precipitation (min, max) = (0, 104.1)
ncvardef: ncid 14: Attribute or variable name contains illegal characters

2. We'd like to run MET over WRF output for a user-defined domain (over
Europe/Germany in Lambert Conformal projection). I understand that
grid_stat can accept GRIB from wrfpost as input. However, I am required
to specify a grid number for masking in the configuration file. The grid
number 255, as produced by the wrfpost, is rejected, even if I include
LATITUDE/LONGITUDE fields in the GRIB file. Do I assume correctly that
MET cannot process user-defined grids and that I *have* to regrid output
to one of the predefined grids to use MET? Or would it be reasonable to
define a polygon describing my custom grid? If so, would it be
sufficient for the polygon to consist of the extreme (lat, lon)
coordinate pairs of my grid, should it trace all the outer grid points,
or do the locations of inner points also play a role? Why is specifying
a mask (either grid number or polygon) mandatory anyway - does the input
GRIB file not contain enough information?

Best regards,
Jan Ploski