[Met_help] pb2nc: -pbfile option not working right

[John Halley Gotway]

Jonathan,

Good news.  I found a bug in PB2NC which I think is causing this problem.

When PB2NC reads the first PrepBufr file, it figures out how many messages that file contains.  Then it attempts to read that number of messages from all subsequent PrepBufr files, rather than
figuring out how many messages are actually in those files.  I think the error you're seeing is PB2NC attempting to read more messages than are actually in the file!

I'll work up a fix for this, post it to the MET website, and send it to you.

Thanks for finding this issue, and sorry for the inconvenience.  I'll write you when I have the fix ready.

Thanks,
John

Case, Jonathan (MSFC)[] wrote:
> John,
> 
>  
> 
> I'm having issues trying to process multiple PREPBUFR files into a
> single daily netcdf file using pb2nc.  
> 
>  
> 
> So far, I've only had one successfully attempt when I first processed
> the 12z gdas1 file, then the 00z, 06z, 18z, and next day's 00z, each
> using the -pbfile option.  [I had to specify the beg_ds and end_ds to be
> +/- 12 hours (43200 seconds) in order for this to work.  Smaller values
> assigned to beg_ds and end_ds resulted in a failure.]  Even so, it does
> not seem as if the -valid_begin and -valid_end options have any effect.
> In my data, I had a few OBS times from before the specified -valid_begin
> time of 20080531_234500:
> 
>  
> 
> lc2:/raid1/casejl/MET/PB2NC > pb2nc gdas1.20080601.t12z.prepbufr.blk.nr
> test_daily.nc PB2NCConfig_SFONLY_WRF -valid_begin 20080531_234500
> -valid_end 20080601_234500 -pbfile gdas1.20080601.t00z.prepbufr.blk.nr
> -pbfile gdas1.20080601.t06z.prepbufr.blk.nr -pbfile
> gdas1.20080601.t18z.prepbufr.blk.nr -pbfile
> gdas1.20080602.t00z.prepbufr.blk.nr
> 
> Reading Config File:    PB2NCConfig_SFONLY_WRF
> 
> Creating NetCDF File:   test_daily.nc
> 
> Reading PrepBufr File:  gdas1.20080601.t12z.prepbufr.blk.nr
> 
> Reading PrepBufr File:  gdas1.20080601.t00z.prepbufr.blk.nr
> 
> Reading PrepBufr File:  gdas1.20080601.t06z.prepbufr.blk.nr
> 
> Reading PrepBufr File:  gdas1.20080601.t18z.prepbufr.blk.nr
> 
> Reading PrepBufr File:  gdas1.20080602.t00z.prepbufr.blk.nr
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Then I tried processing the files in temporal order as follows (keeping
> everything else the same):
> 
>  
> 
> lc2:/raid1/casejl/MET/PB2NC > pb2nc gdas1.20080601.t00z.prepbufr.blk.nr
> test_daily.nc PB2NCConfig_SFONLY_WRF -valid_begin 20080531_234500
> -valid_end 20080601_234500 -pbfile gdas1.20080601.t06z.prepbufr.blk.nr
> -pbfile gdas1.20080601.t12z.prepbufr.blk.nr -pbfile
> gdas1.20080601.t18z.prepbufr.blk.nr -pbfile
> gdas1.20080602.t00z.prepbufr.blk.nr
> 
> Reading Config File:    PB2NCConfig_SFONLY_WRF
> 
> Creating NetCDF File:   test_daily.nc
> 
> Reading PrepBufr File:  gdas1.20080601.t00z.prepbufr.blk.nr
> 
> Reading PrepBufr File:  gdas1.20080601.t06z.prepbufr.blk.nr
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> ERROR: process_pbfile() -> the observation time should remain the same
> for all PrepBufr messages: -62169984000 != 1212300000
> 
> Your advice is much appreciated,
> 
> Jon
> 
>  
> 
> *********************************************************** 
> Jonathan Case, ENSCO, Inc. 
> Aerospace Sciences & Engineering Division 
> Short-term Prediction Research and Transition Center 
> 320 Sparkman Drive, Room 3062 
> Huntsville, AL 35805-1912 
> Voice: (256) 961-7504   Fax: (256) 961-7788 
> Emails: Jonathan.Case-1 at nasa.gov
> 
>              case.jonathan at ensco.com
> 
> ***********************************************************
> 
>  
> 
>