New: The WRF EMS Now supports "personal tile" requests to the SOO/STRC data server. This update allow users to send requests via http (from wrf_prep.pl) for personal tiles of the NAM 12km 218 grid, the 0.5 degree GFS data, and the high resolution (1/12 degree) SST data sets. The retrieved data sets will retain the full reso- lution of the original but will contain data only over the user's computational domain and all unnecessary fields will be eliminated. Furthermore, all files are compressed (bzip2) thus decreasing the needed bandwidth to download the files by as much as 98% for the GFS data set. My initial testing with GFS data over CONUS domain reduced the downloaded file size from 33Mb (each period) to ~600Kb. Time required to download initial and boundary condition files for model run also decreased by ~98%. Additional details are provided below ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- WRF EMS Update : STRCWRF_U02010202e Release Date : 30 March 2007 Release Information: MAJOR BUG FIXES None and that's fine with me MINOR BUG FIXES WRF_PREP.PL 1. The WRF EMS now supports "personal tile" requests to the SOO/STRC data server. Personal tiles are subsets of the full resolution operational model data sets that have been tailored to serve as local model initialization and boundary condition files. The use of personal tiles will both maximize the temporal and spatial resolution of the initialization files while greatly minimizing the size of the files and bandwidth usage. In some cases as much as 98%! Data sets available as personal tiles are: 0.5 degree global GFS - gfsptile 12km grib 218 NAM - namptile 1/12 degree global SST - sstptile Usage Example: % wrf_prep --dset gfsptile --http strc --length 24 --sfcdset sstptile Ok, it's not a bug but I wanted to get the information upfront for those users with a limited attention span. 2. Fixed a bug that was causing the wrf_prep.pl user guide to fail (wrf_prep --guide) on some older versions of Perl. WRF_POST.PL 1. Fixed bug that was not allowing the 2-digit minute to be included in the gempak file name (MN). WRF_AUTORUN.PL 1. Fixed bug when specifying METHOD = NFS^LOCAL in wrf_autorun.conf file. 2. The CLEAN field in wrf_autorun.conf will now be correctly interpreted. If CLEAN = Yes then "wrf_clean --lev 4" will be run prior to executing a new simulation. Note that CLEAN should only be set to Yes for real-time runs. WRF EMS ENHANCEMENTS WRF_PREP.PL 1. Added HTTP support for the TOC server (--http TOC) and FTP support for the TGFTP server (--ftp TGFTP) in the _gribinfo.conf files. Also eliminated any deprecated information regarding the TOC server. Also added TOC = weather.noaa.gov and TGFTP = tgftp.nws.noaa.gov in the data/conf/config/wrf_prep/wrf_prep.conf file. 2. STRC entries in the _gribinfo.conf files have been modified to reflect changes in the new SOO/STRC data server. HTTP support added. WRF_RUN.PL 1. Modified polynomial used in the "auto" calculation of the timestep in the NMM core. 2. wrf_run.pl now supports the use of timesteps in 1/10th of seconds with the NMM core. WRF_POST.PL 1. Chapter 14 of the user guide (WRF 2 AWIPS) has been updated. See the pdf document in wrf/docs/userguide directory. 2. Updated the gempak gif generation scripts in wrf/util/gempak/scripts WRF_AUTORUN.PL 1. Added the --[no]clean flag to wrf_autorun.pl that overrides CLEAN value in wrf_autorun.conf file. OTHER STUFF 1. All the _gribinfo.conf files have been updated. 2. Made change to the date_to_name_a and date_to_name_s routines in strc/strc_utils.pm to make sure value exists for fields before substitution is made. 3. Changed the defined location of narr_sfc.grb in narrsfc_gribinfo.conf COMMENTS and UPDATES Thanks to all who made suggestions and to those who presented their complaints in the form of an "issue that needed resolving asap". While there might be another minor update over the next few months, the next planned release of the WRF EMS package will include a major overhaul of the model data preprocessing and initialization systems. Included in this release will be the WRF Preprocessing System (WPS), now that NCEP has accepted it for use with the NMM core. Other changes will include true 2-way nesting with the NMM core, a completely new Java-based initialization GUI, an update to the NMM and ARW cores, a new users guide, updated wrf BUFR generation code, and a bunch of other fixes and enhancements. Possibly some stuff I haven't thought about yet. I don't anticipate the new package being available until late 2007 depending upon my schedule. Also, a comprehensive verification package will be made available by NCEP/DTC in 2007, maybe. I plan on integrating the package into the WRF EMS as soon as it's made available but I anticipate six to eight weeks of work to make it "user friendly". That's all for now.