[IDV #JNA-984792]: Support for IDV in WRF EMS

Hi Bob-


> >> I would like to provide support for IDV in my next release of the WRF 
> >> Environmental Modeling
> >> System (EMS); however, my IDV familiarity is very limited.  I would like 
> >> to include the IDV
> >> support since the WRF EMS is being used at an increasing number of 
> >> universities.  So my
> >> questions are:
> >>
> >> 1) Do I need to do anything special in providing IDV support?
> >
> > I'm not sure what you mean by "support".  Do you want to answer
> > all the questions? ;-)  Out of the box, the IDV should handle
> > the EMS output.
> 
> I guess you answered my question. "Support" refers to the outputting of the 
> final gridded
> data set into a IDV-compatible format, but I guess that is not an issue since 
> IDV reads GRIB.

Yup, however if you have special grib tables, can you send us those
so we can add them to the grib decoder distribution?  Do they change
often?

> >
> >> 2) What is the preferred data format for model fields?  The current WRF 
> >> post processor
> >> outputs data in GRIB 1 format (which I believe IDV can view) although I can
> >> either reformat the GRIB files are write the fields out into another 
> >> format (netCDF?)
> >> for IDV use.
> >
> > We prefer the grib output on pressure levels.  There's not enough
> > info in the grib file to convert from sigma.  The netCDF grids
> > are our least favorite because they are staggered and then
> > we have to destagger them on the fly which is very compute
> > and memory intensive.
> 
> With the WRF post processor, the user has the option of outputting fields on 
> native
> (eta), isobaric, isentropic, height coordinates, or any combination thereof. 
> There
> are a number of fields, such as simulated reflectivity, that are not in the 
> normal
> grib tables so I've had to create my own.

Then in your "support" docs, I would say that right now we only
handle the isobaric and height coordinates.  We're working on the
isentropic stuff, but that won't be too soon.  The ETA coordiantes
are problematic because a single grib message doesn't give any
reference to the base parameters.

> >
> > We can also read in the GEMPAK formatted files if that's an
> > option.  That allows sites that use GEMPAK to use that and IDV.
> 
> Another option since the WRF EMS can generate GEMPAK files.

I know NC State uses that option.

> Thanks for your help!

Thanks for promoting the IDV!

Don

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: JNA-984792
Department: Support IDV
Priority: Normal
Status: Open