[Met_help] Request for Assistance-UPDATE (UNCLASSIFIED)

Fri Apr 23 14:07:16 MDT 2010

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

John - 

We are unable to put together the data you requested now. 

Ignoring the source of the observational (PrepBUFR or MADIS) the main issue
is that if the required data argument contains no data for a given hour the
software ignored the optional data for that same hour. Conversely, if there
was required data for a given hour, then the optional data for that hour was
ingested and used by Point-Stat. In short, the software refuses to add
optional data to missing required data field. 

Why should the lack of data in the required data for a given hour preclude
the ingest of the optional data for that same hour?

Due to the complexity of all of this, it would probably help to discuss it
verbally. Please call me at this number (575) 678-2004.

Thanks.

John

-----Original Message-----
From: John Halley Gotway [mailto:johnhg at ucar.edu] 
Sent: Friday, April 23, 2010 10:35 AM
To: Raby, John (Civ, ARL/CISD)
Cc: Brown, Bob (Civ, ARL/CISD); met_help at ucar.edu
Subject: Re: [Met_help] Request for Assistance-UPDATE (UNCLASSIFIED)

John,

The order in which you pass point observation files to Point-Stat should
have no impact on how the matched pairs are accumulated.  For each
observation file passed to Point-Stat (the mandatory one or additional
optional ones), we just call the "process_obs_file" routine once.  If the
behavior of Point-Stat changes depending on the order of the point
observation files, there may be a bug.

I'm not entirely clear on the exact details of your situation.  Would you be
able to provide me with an example of running Point-Stat two different ways,
where changing the order of the point observation files has an impact on the
results?  The simpler you're able to make the example, the easier it'll be
to debug the issue.

For this, I'd need:
- 1 forecast file
- 2 point observation files
- 1 Point-Stat configuration file
- 1 example of how you call Point-Stat on the command line

And you could post them to our ftp following the directions I sent
previously.

Thanks,
John

Raby, John (Civ, ARL/CISD) wrote:
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
> 
> John -
> 
> UPDATE: 
> 
> We solved the problem by processing the PrepBUFR data to include the 
> metar data (ADPSFC) in addition to the ADPUPA" and "ANYAIR" data 
> mentioned in the email below. This ensured that there were all 25 
> files of data present data provided in the required argument.
> 
> We changed the MADIS data collection to remove the metar data and only 
> receive the mesonet data and added this using the optional data 
> argument (-ncfile).
> 
> Now the Point-Stat results are produced for all 25 hours (06Z-06Z).
> 
> In summary, if the required PrepBUFR data argument contains no data 
> for a given hour the software ignored the optional MADIS data.
> 
> Is this supposed to happen? Why should the lack of data in the 
> PrepBUFR data (required argument) preclude the ingest all 25 hours of the
optional data?
> 
> Please call me if we can clarify more for you or let me know if you 
> still want the data ftp'd to you.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> R/
> John
> 
> Mr John W. Raby, Meteorologist
> U.S. Army Research Laboratory
> White Sands Missile Range, NM 88011
> (575) 678-2004 DSN 258-2004
> FAX (575) 678-1230 DSN 258-1230
> Email: john.raby at us.army.mil
> 
> Please begin using the email address within this signature block for 
> all future correspondence.  The current @arl.army.mil address will be 
> decommissioned in upcoming months.
> 
> "When you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in 
> numbers, you know something about it, but when you cannot measure it, 
> when you cannot express it in number, your knowledge is of a meagre 
> and unsatisfactory kind". - Lord Kelvin
> 
>  
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Halley Gotway [mailto:johnhg at rap.ucar.edu]
> Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2010 8:58 AM
> To: Raby, John (Civ, ARL/CISD)
> Cc: met_help at ucar.edu
> Subject: Re: Request for Assistance
> 
> John,
> 
> Sure, we'd be happy to help you figure this out.  Would you be able to 
> send me some sample ASCII MADIS data, a sample forecast file, and the 
> Point-Stat configuration file you're using?
> 
> I'll try running ASCII2NC and Point-Stat here and figure out what's 
> going on.
> 
> You could post this sample data to our ftp site as follows:
> ftp ftp.rap.ucar.edu
> username=anonymous
> password="your email address"
> cd incoming/irap/met_help/raby_data
> put "your data files"
> bye
> 
> Please let me know when the data is available, and I'll go take a look.
> 
> Thanks,
> John
> 
> 
> We are attempting to use both PrepBUFR and MADIS observational data in 
> MET Point_Stat to evaluate WRF performance over Utah for 2 domains, 
> one nested inside the other.
> 
> We process the PrepBUFR data for a 24 hour period (06Z to 06Z) We 
> explicitly retain only the message strings "ADPUPA" and "ANYAIR" using 
> the PB2NC configuration file settings in order to collect upper air 
> data (raobs, aircraft, acars, etc). After running PB2NC, we typically 
> find only 7 hourly files (12Z, 15Z, 17Z, 19Z, 20Z, 00Z and 01Z) out of 
> 25 possible which contain data (presumably because the upper air data 
> is not present for every hour).  These 7 include the 00Z and 12Z raob 
> data for 2 upper air stations inside the larger of our domains (KSLC and
KLKN).
> 
> We process the MADIS data to retain only surface mesonet and metar 
> data in
> 25 hourly text files (Point observation format), then run ASCII2NC to 
> convert the files to netcdf.
> 
> We ran Point-Stat with the PrepBUFR upper air data files specified in 
> the required argument for the "obs_file" with the MADIS (surface data) 
> specified as additional NETCDF point observation files using the "-ncfile"
argument.
> 
> The Point-Stat output contains results for only the hours 12Z, 15Z, 
> 17Z, 19Z, 20Z, 00Z and 01Z.
> 
> We then tried running Point-Stat with the MADIS data specified in the 
> required argument and the PrepBUFR data specified as the optional 
> (additional observation file) argument, but this gave identical results.
> 
> We expect results for all 25 hourly periods since we know that there 
> are MADIS surface observations for every hour.
> 
> Can you assist us in resolving this problem?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> R/
> John
> 
> Mr John W. Raby, Meteorologist
> U.S. Army Research Laboratory
> White Sands Missile Range, NM 88011
> (575) 678-2004 DSN 258-2004
> FAX (575) 678-1230 DSN 258-1230
> Email: john.raby at us.army.mil
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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> 
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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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