5.1.6.1. GempakToCF: Basic Use Case

met_tool_wrapper/GempakToCF/GempakToCF.conf

Scientific Objective

None. Simply converting data to a format that MET can read.

Datasets

Observations: MRMS QPE

Location: All of the input data required for this use case can be found in the met_test sample data tarball. Click here to the METplus releases page and download sample data for the appropriate release: https://github.com/dtcenter/METplus/releases

This tarball should be unpacked into the directory that you will set the value of INPUT_BASE. See Running METplus section for more information.

Data Source: Unknown

External Dependencies

GempakToCF.jar

GempakToCF is an external tool that utilizes the Unidata NetCDF-Java package. The jar file that can be used to run the utility is available here: https://dtcenter.org/sites/default/files/community-code/metplus/utilities/GempakToCF.jar

See the METplus Configuration section below for information on how to configure METplus to find the jar file.

More information on the package used to create the file is here: https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf-java

METplus Components

This use case utilizes the METplus GempakToCF wrapper to generate a command to run GempakToCF (external) if all required files are found.

METplus Workflow

GempakToCF is the only tool called in this example. It processes the following run times:

Init: 2017-06-22 0Z

Init: 2017-06-22 12Z

METplus Configuration

To enable Gempak support, you must set [exe] GEMPAKTOCF_JAR in your user METplus configuration file.:

[exe] GEMPAKTOCF_JAR = /path/to/GempakToCF.jar

METplus first loads all of the configuration files found in parm/metplus_config, then it loads any configuration files passed to METplus via the command line with the -c option, i.e. -c parm/use_cases/met_tool_wrapper/GempakToCF/GempakToCF.conf

# Gempak to NetCDF Configurations

# section heading for [config] variables - all items below this line and
# before the next section heading correspond to the [config] section
[config]

# List of applications to run - only GempakToCF for this case
PROCESS_LIST = GempakToCF

# time looping - options are INIT, VALID, RETRO, and REALTIME
# If set to INIT or RETRO:
#   INIT_TIME_FMT, INIT_BEG, INIT_END, and INIT_INCREMENT must also be set
# If set to VALID or REALTIME:
#   VALID_TIME_FMT, VALID_BEG, VALID_END, and VALID_INCREMENT must also be set
LOOP_BY = VALID

# Format of VALID_BEG and VALID_END
# %Y = 4 digit year, %m = 2 digit month, %d = 2 digit day, etc.
# see www.strftime.org for more information
# %Y%m%d%H expands to YYYYMMDDHH
VALID_TIME_FMT = %Y%m%d%H

# Start time for METplus run - must match VALID_TIME_FMT
VALID_BEG=2017062200

# End time for METplus run - must match VALID_TIME_FMT
VALID_END=2017062212

# Increment between METplus runs (in seconds if no units are specified)
#  Must be >= 60 seconds
VALID_INCREMENT=12H

# List of forecast leads to process for each run time (init or valid)
# In hours if units are not specified
# If unset, defaults to 0 (don't loop through forecast leads)
LEAD_SEQ = 0

# Order of loops to process data - Options are times, processes
# Not relevant if only one item is in the PROCESS_LIST
# times = run all wrappers in the PROCESS_LIST for a single run time, then
#   increment the run time and run all wrappers again until all times have
#   been evaluated.
# processes = run the first wrapper in the PROCESS_LIST for all times
#   specified, then repeat for the next item in the PROCESS_LIST until all
#   wrappers have been run
LOOP_ORDER = times

# If True, do not run GempakToCF if output file already exists
GEMPAKTOCF_SKIP_IF_OUTPUT_EXISTS = False

[dir]
# input and output data directories
GEMPAKTOCF_INPUT_DIR = {INPUT_BASE}/met_test/new/gempak
GEMPAKTOCF_OUTPUT_DIR = {OUTPUT_BASE}/met_tool_wrapper/GempakToCF

[filename_templates]
# format of filenames
GEMPAKTOCF_INPUT_TEMPLATE = {valid?fmt=%Y%m%d}/mrms_qpe_{valid?fmt=%Y%m%d%H}.grd
GEMPAKTOCF_OUTPUT_TEMPLATE = {valid?fmt=%Y%m%d}/mrms_qpe_{valid?fmt=%Y%m%d%H}.nc

Running METplus

This use case can be run two ways:

1. Passing in GempakToCF.conf then a user-specific system configuration file:

   run_metplus.py -c /path/to/METplus/parm/use_cases/met_tool_wrapper/GempakToCF/GempakToCF.conf -c /path/to/user_system.conf
   

2. Modifying the configurations in parm/metplus_config, then passing in GempakToCF.conf:

   run_metplus.py -c /path/to/METplus/parm/use_cases/met_tool_wrapper/GempakToCF/GempakToCF.conf
   

The former method is recommended. Whether you add them to a user-specific configuration file or modify the metplus_config files, the following variables must be set correctly:

• INPUT_BASE - Path to directory where sample data tarballs are unpacked (See Datasets section to obtain tarballs). This is not required to run METplus, but it is required to run the examples in parm/use_cases

• OUTPUT_BASE - Path where METplus output will be written. This must be in a location where you have write permissions

• MET_INSTALL_DIR - Path to location where MET is installed locally

Example User Configuration File:

[dir]
INPUT_BASE = /path/to/sample/input/data
OUTPUT_BASE = /path/to/output/dir
MET_INSTALL_DIR = /path/to/met-X.Y

NOTE: All of these items must be found under the [dir] section.

Expected Output

A successful run will output the following both to the screen and to the logfile:

INFO: METplus has successfully finished running.

Refer to the value set for OUTPUT_BASE to find where the output data was generated. Output for this use case will be found in met_tool_wrapper/GempakToCF (relative to OUTPUT_BASE) and will contain the following file:

• 20170622/mrms_qpe_2017062200.nc

• 20170622/mrms_qpe_2017062212.nc

Keywords

Note

GempakToCFToolUseCase, GEMPAKFileUseCase, NOAAHMTOrgUseCase, NOAAWPCOrgUseCase

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