NCAR-GWF `WRF-CONUSI`

In this file, the details of the dataset is explained.

[!CAUTION] WRF-CONUSI dataset needs extensive I/O operations in the cache directory. So, in case of submitting SLURM jobs, it is recommended to use the $SLURM_TMPDIR directory as cache. This can be provided to the main extract-dataset.sh script using the --cache='$SLURM_TMPDIR' option. Please be mindful of single quotation marks for the argument.

Location of Dataset Files

The WRF-CONUSI simulation outputs are located under the following directory accessible from Compute Canada (CC) Graham Cluster:

# DRAC Graham HPC location
/project/rpp-kshook/Model_Output/WRF/CONUS/CTRL/ # rpp-kshook location

and the structure of the dataset hourly files is as following:

/project/rpp-kshook/Model_Output/WRF/CONUS/CTRL/
├── 2000
│   ├── wrf2d_d01_2000-10-01_00:00:00
│   ├── wrf2d_d01_2000-10-01_01:00:00
│   ├── .
│   ├── .
│   ├── .
│   └── wrf2d_d01-2000-12-31_23:00:00
.
.
.
├── %Y
│   ├── wrf2d_d01_%Y-%m-%d_%H:00:00
│   ├── .
│   ├── .
│   ├── .
│   .
│   .
│   .
.
.
.
└── 2013
    ├── .
    ├── .
    ├── .
    └── wrf2d_d01-2013-12-31_23:00:00

Coordinate Variables and Time-stamps

Coordinate Variables

The coordinate variables of the WRF-CONUSI simulations are located outside of the main dataset files. The NetCDF file containing the coordinate varibles could be found at the following:

/project/rpp-kshook/Model_Output/WRF/CONUS/CTRL/coord.nc

However, upon many trials by the author, the variables were not concatenated with the main NetCDF files easily. A workaround has been provided to add at least two necessary coordinate variables, i.e., XLAT and XLONG, to the WRF simulation files. These two coordinates are enough to work with almost all of the meteorological variables included in the dataset. The following scripts are used on Compute Canada (CC) Graham Cluster to produce the substitute NetCDF file containing coordinate variables:

# make a copy of coordinate variable netCDF file first
foo@bar:~$ module load cdo/2.0.4; module load nco/5.0.6;
foo@bar:~$ coordFile="/project/6008034/Model_Output/WRF/CONUS/CTRL/coord.nc"
foo@bar:~$ ncks -O -v XLAT,XLONG "$coordFile" coord2.nc
foo@bar:~$ nccopy -4 coord2.nc coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncatted -O -a FieldType,XLAT,d,, coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncatted -O -a MemoryOrder,XLAT,d,, coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncatted -O -a stagger,XLAT,d,, coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncatted -O -a coordinates,XLAT,d,, coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncatted -O -a sr_x,XLAT,d,, coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncatted -O -a sr_y,XLAT,d,, coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncatted -O -a FieldType,XLONG,d,, coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncatted -O -a MemoryOrder,XLONG,d,, coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncatted -O -a stagger,XLONG,d,, coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncatted -O -a coordinates,XLONG,d,, coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncatted -O -a sr_x,XLONG,d,, coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncatted -O -a sr_y,XLONG,d,, coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncwa -O -a Times coord_new.nc coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncks -O -v XLAT,XLONG coord_new.nc coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncrename -a XLONG@description,long_name coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncrename -a XLAT@description,long_name coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncatted -O -a cell_methods,,d,, coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncatted -O -a cell_methods,,d,, coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncatted -O -a ,global,d,, coord_new.nc
foo@bar:~$ ncatted -O -h -a license,global,c,c,"GNU General Public License v3 (GPLv3)" coord_new.nc

Furthermore, the substitute NetCDF file containing the coordinate variables are located at /asset/coord_XLAT_XLONG_conus_i.nc within this repository. The workaround NetCDF is automatically being used by the script to add the XLAT and XLONG variables to the final, produced files.

Time-stamps

The time-stamp of the time-steps are missing from the dataset NetCDF files. However, the time-stamps for each time-step is obvious from the file names. The time-stamp pattern of the dataset files is as following: %Y-%m-%d_%H:00:00 which will be changed to %Y-%m-%s %H:00:00 to be registered as a valid time-stamp in the NetCDF files. The script is able to set the time-stamps for the final produced file(s) automatically.

Dataset Variables

The NetCDF files of the dataset contain 281 variables. You may see a list of variables by using the ncdump -h command on one of the files:

foo@bar:~$ module load cdo/2.0.4
foo@bar:~$ module load nco/5.0.6
foo@bar:~$ ncdump -h  /project/rpp-kshook/Model_Output/WRF/CONUS/CTRL/2000/wrf2d_d01_2000-10-01_00:00:00

Spatial Extent

The spatial extent of the WRF-CONUSI is on latitutes from 18.13629 to 57.91813 and longitudes from -139.0548 to -56.94519.

Temporal Extent

As is obvious from the nomenclature of the dataset files, the time-steps are hourly covering from the October 2000 to September 2013.

Short Description on `WRF-CONUSI` Variables

In most hydrological modelling applications, usually 7 variables are needed detailed as following: 1) specific humidity at 2 meters, 2) surface pressure, 3) air temperature at 2 meters, 4) wind speed at 10 meters, 5) precipitation, 6) downward short wave radiation, and 7) downward long wave radiation. These variables are available through WRF-CONUSI dataset and their details are described in the table below:

Variable Information
Variable Name	WRF-CONUSI Variable	Unit	IPCC abbreviation	Comments
surface pressure	`PSFC`	Pa	ps
specific humidity @2m	`Q2`	1	huss
air temperature @2m	`T2`	k	tas
wind speed @10m	`U10,V10`	m/s	wspd	WIND=SQRT(U10² + V10²)
precipitation	`PREC_ACC_NC`	mm/hr		accumulated precipitation over one hour
short wave radiation	`SWDOWN`	W m^-2	rsds
long wave radiation	`GLW`	W m^-2	rlds

NCAR-GWF WRF-CONUSI