20020308: RUC model grids in HRS stream (cont.)

>From: "Kevin Polston" <address@hidden>
>Organization: NOAA/NWS
>Keywords: 200203050151.g251p7K03671 IDD

Kevin,

After some digging...

>Finally, regarding the RUC data. In my pqact.conf file where I
>configure the RUC to grab a certain grid....there is a commented line
>that says "only the 211 grid is available for the RUC".  I guess the
>211 grid does not have CAPE or Helicity.

Right.

>I tried changing that to a
>different grid (based on the examples for the ETA) and of course, no
>new RUC data came in. So my question is this.....is it possible or will
>it be possible in the near future to acquire another ruc grid that does
>have cape and helicity on it?

You should already be getting the grid 236 RUC grids.  I think that you
will need to make a mod to your pqact.conf file to decode the grid 236
RUC grids.

>In the meantime I started up my
>cronmaster again to just download the ruc until I can get the right
>grid through ldm.

There should be no difference in the datastream feeding the process
creating the grid files you are FTPing and the one that you are
getting.  I just verified that your upstream host is requesting all
grids from its upstream host AND, a few minutes ago, verified that its
upstream feed site is getting all of the HRS data, AND that site is
getting the data from motherlode, so your HRS data should be identical
to that on motherlode where RUC grids with CAPE and Helicity are being
produced.

Here is your current pqact.conf action related to RUC grids:

#
# RUC/MAPS model output
# Grid #211 CONUS   80km: ^[YZ].Q.*/mRUC
# Currently, only grid #211
HRS     ^[YZ].[Q].*/mRUC
        PIPE    decoders/dcgrib2 -d data/gempak/logs/dcgrib.log
        -e GEMTBL=/usr1/nawips/gempak/tables
        /usr1/nawips/metdat/gempak/grids/YYMMDDHH_ruc_full.gem

What I found on motherlode was that RUC grids come in as both the Q and
W grids.  Also, the W grids are RUC2 not RUC.  You can verify that you
are getting the RUC2 grids by using notifyme:

notifyme -vxl- -f HRS -o 3600 -p "/mRUC"

This interrogates your own LDM for any HRS product (grid) that matches
the pattern /mRUC.  Both /mRUC and /mRUC2 will match the -p pattern.

Given this, and given that GEMPAK stores only grids of a like
projection in a single grid file, it seems that you will need an
additional action to file the grid 236 RUC output.

** Disclaimer **  I am no expert on the grid side and I am definitely
no GEMPAK expert, so take the following for what it is worth:

I believe that you should add a new pqact.conf action that looks something
like:

#
# RUC/MAPS model output
# Grid #236 CONUS   40km: ^[YZ].W.*/mRUC
HRS     ^[YZ].[W].*/mRUC2
        PIPE    decoders/dcgrib2 -d data/gempak/logs/dcgrib.log
        -e GEMTBL=/usr1/nawips/gempak/tables
        /usr1/nawips/metdat/gempak/grids/YYMMDDHH_ruc2_full.gem


It is then up to you to configure your GEMPAK setup to be able to use
these grid files.

Since the RUC comes in every 3 hours, you should be able to see the
results of your action pretty quickly.

Later...

Tom