[Met_help] verifying upper-level wind speed with PointStat

[John Halley Gotway]

Joe,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.  If you're still experiencing these issues, please send me a sample forecast file (GRIB output of WPP), observation file (output of PB2NC), and the
Point-Stat configuration file you're using.

I'll run it through the debugger and see if I can figure out what's going on.  You can post these file to our anonymous FTP site using the following commands:
ftp ftp.rap.ucar.edu
username = anonymous
password = "your email address"
cd incoming/irap/johnhg
put "your files"
bye

FYI, when you request WIND speed in MET, it'll look in the GRIB file for a WIND variable at the requested level.  If MET can't find one, it'll look for the U and V components at the level and derive a
wind speed from them.

Thanks,
John


Joe Olson wrote:
> 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
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