[Wrf-users] Writing Binary Files for WPS

[Huber, David]

Hello,

I am trying to ingest CCSM output data into WPS 3.3 for initial and boundary conditions of WRF.  I have attached the NCL code, the stub file, and the fortran code that read the CCSM output and generates the unformatted binary files that metgrid.exe needs in order to generate the NetCDF files necessary for WRF.  The code runs properly, and the binary files are generated with the proper fields.  After providing soft links to the binary files and running geogrid.exe, I ran metgrid.exe and received the following error message:

pequod:dbh409> ./metgrid.exe
Processing domain 1 of 1
 Processing 1990-01-01_00
    SF
    3D
    2D
ERROR: The mandatory field TT was not found in any input data.

I have double checked the binary files and I've been able to find the TT field in the "3D" files, but for some reason metgrid.exe is unable to recognize it.  My best guess is that metgrid.exe is expecting a different type of binary file than is being provided, which likely means there is an issue in the way NCL and WPS were compiled such that they do not generate the same types of binary files.  NCL (6.0.0), WRF, WPS, and NCAR Graphics are all built using gfortran and gcc.  NCL and NCAR Graphics used the precompiled binaries while WRF and WPS are both built using the serial option.  NetCDF was built using the Intel compilers, which I believe was responsible for some errors in the WPS compilations, but ungrib.exe, metgrid.exe, and geogrid.exe were all created without issue.  Note that this build of WPS/WRF will not be used to actually run the simulations.  Instead, it is only used to run metgrid.exe.

Do you know if I should change any of the flags in the building of WPS and/or WRF so that metgrid.exe expects the correct type of binary file?  Does NCL need to be custom built to accomplish what I need to do?

Thanks,

Dave