[Met_help] [rt.rap.ucar.edu #44298] History for WRF MET 3.0 NetCDF/Prepbufr problems

Wed Feb 23 14:41:31 MST 2011

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  Initial Request
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Dear Help Desk,

I am having two issues with METv3.0.  The first is when I attempt to run PB2NC, either using downloaded PrepBUFR files or using the "test_all.sh" example.  In both cases, I get the error "BUFRLIB: OPENBF - ERROR READING INPUT FILE CONNECTED TO UNIT  11 WHEN CHECKING FOR 'BUFR' IN FIRST 4 BYTES OF RECORD."  MET was compiled on our system using Intel compilers, with and without the "-DBLOCK4" flag, and neither configuration has helped get PB2NC running.  The second is when I attempt to run any of the other programs in MET (e.g., gen_poly_mask, grid_stat, etc.) using a wrfout* file as the input file, it responds back with a message "NetCDF: Attribute not found."  However, when running these programs using the sample data that came with MET, using the "test_all.sh" script, they work fine.  What should I do to resolve these issues?

Thanks,

Elliot Tardif, Meteorologist I
NC DENR, Division of Air Quality
Planning Section, Attainment Planning Branch
1641 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1641
Phone:  919-715-9773
Fax  :  919-715-7476
Email:  Elliot.Tardif at ncdenr.gov<mailto:Nick.Witcraft at ncdenr.gov>
Web  :  http://www.ncair.org

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  Complete Ticket History
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Subject: Re: [rt.rap.ucar.edu #44298] WRF MET 3.0 NetCDF/Prepbufr problems
From: John Halley Gotway
Time: Thu Feb 10 15:44:03 2011

Elliot,

I'll answer your second question first.  MET is not designed to read
the NetCDF output of WRF directly.  WRF's output is defined on a
staggered grid in the horizontal and on native model levels in the
vertical.  However, MET is set up to read regularly-spaced unstaggered
data in the horizontal and on pressure levels in the vertical.  We
require this because that's how point observations are defined
- as being at a specific pressure level (or height above ground) in
the vertical.

So there is a model post-processing step that is required prior to
verification.  We recommend using the WRF PostProcessor (WPP) to do
this post-processing:
   http://www.dtcenter.org/wrf-nmm/users/downloads/index.php
This post-processor may be run on output from the WRF-NMM and WRF-ARW
cores.  It's output is written in GRIB, which is the data format for
which MET was written.

Alternatively, if you're running the WRF-ARW core, you could make use
of the p_interp tool to do the post-processing:
   http://www.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/OnLineTutorial/Tools/p_interp.htm

This tool writes it's output in NetCDF and MET can read this flavor of
NetCDF, but our support for it is more limited than it is for GRIB.
Also, p_interp itself is much more limited in the types of
fields it can derive from the raw model output.  For these reasons, we
recommend using the WRF PostProcessor.  The sample gridded data we
distribute with MET is in GRIB format - that's why the test
scripts are able to read them.

Now on to your first question - turning the "-DBLOCK4" flag on/off is
the right thing to try.  You should make sure though that before
recompiling you execute a "make clean" first.  Please try
switching it on/off again, being sure to do a "make clean" before
rebuilding.  If that doesn't work, please let me know the version of
the intel compiler you're running.

Thanks,
John Halley Gotway
met_help at ucar.edu

On 02/10/2011 03:24 PM, RAL HelpDesk {for Tardif, Elliot M} wrote:
>
> Thu Feb 10 15:24:10 2011: Request 44298 was acted upon.
> Transaction: Ticket created by elliot.tardif at ncdenr.gov
>        Queue: met_help
>      Subject: WRF MET 3.0 NetCDF/Prepbufr problems
>        Owner: Nobody
>   Requestors: elliot.tardif at ncdenr.gov
>       Status: new
>  Ticket <URL:
https://rt.rap.ucar.edu/rt/Ticket/Display.html?id=44298 >
>
>
> Dear Help Desk,
>
> I am having two issues with METv3.0.  The first is when I attempt to
run PB2NC, either using downloaded PrepBUFR files or using the
"test_all.sh" example.  In both cases, I get the error "BUFRLIB:
OPENBF - ERROR READING INPUT FILE CONNECTED TO UNIT  11 WHEN CHECKING
FOR 'BUFR' IN FIRST 4 BYTES OF RECORD."  MET was compiled on our
system using Intel compilers, with and without the "-DBLOCK4" flag,
and neither configuration has helped get PB2NC running.  The second is
when I attempt to run any of the other programs in MET (e.g.,
gen_poly_mask, grid_stat, etc.) using a wrfout* file as the input
file, it responds back with a message "NetCDF: Attribute not found."
However, when running these programs using the sample data that came
with MET, using the "test_all.sh" script, they work fine.  What should
I do to resolve these issues?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Elliot Tardif, Meteorologist I
> NC DENR, Division of Air Quality
> Planning Section, Attainment Planning Branch
> 1641 Mail Service Center
> Raleigh, NC 27699-1641
> Phone:  919-715-9773
> Fax  :  919-715-7476
> Email:  Elliot.Tardif at ncdenr.gov<mailto:Nick.Witcraft at ncdenr.gov>
> Web  :  http://www.ncair.org
>
>
*****************************************************************************************
> E-mail correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the
> North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third
parties.
>
*****************************************************************************************
>

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