Version 3 Modeling System User's Guide April 2012

384 Pages·2012·4.41 MB·English

Version 3 Modeling System User’s Guide
April 2012
Mesoscale & Microscale Meteorology Division • National Center for Atmospheric Research
Foreword

This User’s Guide describes the Advanced Research WRF (ARW) Version 3.4 modeling
system, released in April 2012. As the ARW is developed further, this document will be
continuously enhanced and updated. Please send feedback to [email protected].

This document is complementary to the ARW Tech Note
(http://www.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/users/docs/arw_v3.pdf), which describes the equations,
numerics, boundary conditions, and nesting etc. in greater detail.

Highlights of updates to WRFV3.4 include:

• WRF model:
New physics:
Land surface physics:
o
 Noah-MP (with MP standing for ‘multi-physics’; contributed by Niu et
al. from U. of Texas)
 SSiB (Simplified Simple Biosphere Model; contributed by Y.-K. Xue
and F. de Sales of UCLA)
Revised MM5 surface layer scheme (contributed by Jimenez of CIEMAT,
o
Spain)
Eddy-Diffusivity Mass-Flux for QNSE (contributed by Pergaud of Numtech
o
of France)
NSSL 2-moment microphysics (contributed by Mansell of NSSL)
o
Fu-Liou-Gu long- and short-wave atmospheric radiation scheme (contributed
o
by Gu of UCLA)
Topographic correction for surface winds (contributed by Jimenez of
o
CIEMAT, Spain)
Dynamics/Advection:
Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory advection scheme for momentum and
o
scalars (contributed by Mansell of NSSL)
• WRF-DA updates:
WRFPLUS3 – parallel WRF TL/AD based on WRF V3.4
o
Parallelization of 4D-VAR
o
Precipitation data assimilation in 4D-VAR
o
NOAA-19 AMSUA and MHS added
o
Improved capability to generate forecast sensitivity to observations
o
• WRF-Chemistry
Upper boundary condition that relaxes stratospheric chemistry to
o
climatological values
Coupled MOZART - MOSAIC with simplified SOA scheme
o
AQCHEM aqueous chemistry and wet deposition schemes
o
CO2 chemistry scheme
o
A new Green House Gas scheme
o
Dust emission algorithm from AFWA
o
Option to couple volcanic ash and SO2 emissions with other chemistry and
o
aerosol modules
Improved volcanic ash routine
o
Improved emissions preprocessor routine
o

For the latest version of this document, please visit the ARW Users’ Web site at
http://www.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/users/.

Contributors to this guide:
Wei Wang, Cindy Bruyère, Michael Duda, Jimy Dudhia, Dave Gill, Michael Kavulich,
Kelly Keene, Hui-Chuan Lin, John Michalakes, Syed Rizvi, and Xin Zhang.
Contributors to WRF-Fire chapter:
Jonathan D. Beezley, Janice L. Coen, and Jan Mandel
Contributors to UPP section:
Hui-Ya Chuang, Nicole McKee, Tricia Slovacek, and Jamie Wolff

Special Acknowledgment:
We gratefully acknowledge the late Dr. Thomas T. Warner for his years of research,
development, instruction, leadership, and motivation in the field of NWP modeling.
CONTENTS

1. Overview
− Introduction ................................................................................. 1-1
− The WRF Modeling System Program Components ..................... 1-2

2. Software Installation
− Introduction .................................................................................. 2-1
− Required Compilers and Scripting Languages ............................. 2-2
− Required/Optional Libraries to Download .................................... 2-2
− Post-Processing Utilities .............................................................. 2-3
− UNIX Environment Settings ......................................................... 2-4
− Building the WRF Code ............................................................... 2-5
− Building the WPS Code ............................................................... 2-6
− Building the WRFDA Code (for 3DVAR) ...................................... 2-7
− Building the WRFDA Code (for 4DVAR) …………………………. 2-9

3. The WRF Preprocessing System (WPS)
− Introduction ................................................................................. 3-1
− Function of Each WPS Program ................................................. 3-2
− Installing the WPS ...................................................................... 3-4
− Running the WPS ....................................................................... 3-7
− Creating Nested Domains with the WPS .................................. 3-19
− Selecting Between USGS and MODIS-based
Land Use Data .......................................................................... 3-21
− Selecting Static Data for the Gravity Wave Drag Scheme ........ 3-22
− Using Multiple Meteorological Data Sources ............................ 3-23
− Alternative Initialization of Lake SSTs…………………………… 3-26
− Parallelism in the WPS ............................................................. 3-28
− Checking WPS Output .............................................................. 3-29
− WPS Utility Programs ............................................................... 3-29
− Writing Meteorological Data to the Intermediate Format ........... 3-33
− Creating and Editing Vtables .................................................... 3-35
− Writing Static Data to the Geogrid Binary Format ..................... 3-37
− Description of Namelist Variables ............................................. 3-40
− Description of GEOGRID.TBL Options ..................................... 3-46
− Description of index Options ..................................................... 3-49
− Description of METGRID.TBL Options ..................................... 3-51
− Available Interpolation Options in Geogrid and Metgrid ............ 3-54
− Land Use and Soil Categories in the Static Data ...................... 3-57
− WPS Output Fields ................................................................... 3-59

4. WRF Initialization
− Introduction ................................................................................. 4-1
− Initialization for Ideal Data Cases ............................................... 4-3
− Initialization for Real Data Cases ................................................ 4-6

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CONTENTS

5. WRF Model
− Introduction ................................................................................ 5-1
− Installing WRF ........................................................................... 5-2
− Running WRF ............................................................................ 5-7
− Examples of namelist for various applications .......................... 5-25
− Check Output ........................................................................... 5-27
− Trouble Shooting ...................................................................... 5-28
− Physics and Dynamics Options ................................................ 5-29
− Summary of PBL Physics Options………………………………. 5-38
− Summary of Microphysics Options………………………………. 5-40
− Summary of Cumulus Parameterization Options………………. 5-41
− Description of Namelist Variables ............................................. 5-43
− WRF Output Fields ................................................................... 5-72

6. WRF Data Assimilation
− Introduction ................................................................................. 6-1
− Installing WRFDA for 3D-Var Run…. .......................................... 6-3
− Installing WRFPLUS and WRFDA for 4D-Var Run ..................... 6-8
− Running Observation Preprocessor (OBSPROC) ...................... 6-9
− Running WRFDA ...................................................................... 6-13
− Radiance Data Assimilations in WRFDA .................................. 6-21
− Precipitation Data Assimilation in WRFDA 4D-Var…………….. 6-31
− Updating WRF boundary conditions ......................................... 6-34
− Running gen_be ....................................................................... 6-36
− Additional WRFDA Exercises ................................................... 6-39
− WRFDA with Multivariate Background Error (MBE) Statistics…6-41
− WRFDA Diagnostics ................................................................. 6-43
− Hybrid Data Assimilation ........................................................... 6-46
− Description of Namelist Variables ............................................. 6-50

7. Objective Analysis (OBSGRID)
− Introduction ................................................................................. 7-1
− Program Flow ............................................................................. 7-2
− Source of Observations .............................................................. 7-3
− Objective Analysis techniques in OBSGRID ............................... 7-4
− Quality Control for Observations ................................................. 7-6
− Additional Observations .............................................................. 7-6
− Surface FDDA option .................................................................. 7-7
− Objective Analysis on Model Nests ............................................. 7-7
− How to run OBSGRID ................................................................. 7-8
− Output Files .............................................................................. 7-10
− Plot Utilities ............................................................................... 7-12

WRF-ARW V3: User’s Guide ii
CONTENTS

− Observations Format ................................................................ 7-13
− OBSGRID Namelist .................................................................. 7-16
8. WRF Software
− WRF Build Mechanism ............................................................... 8-1
− Registry ...................................................................................... 8-5
− I/O Applications Program Interface (I/O API) ............................ 8-14
− Timekeeping ............................................................................. 8-14
− Software Documentation .......................................................... 8-15
− Performance ............................................................................. 8-15

9. Post-Processing Programs
− Introduction ................................................................................. 9-1
− NCL . .......................................................................................... 9-2
− RIP4 . ........................................................................................ 9-20
− ARWpost .................................................................................. 9-29
− UPP ........................................................................................ 9-36
− VAPOR ..................................................................................... 9-59

10. Utilities and Tools
− Introduction ............................................................................... 10-1
− read_wrf_nc .............................................................................. 10-1
− iowrf . ........................................................................................ 10-5
− p_interp ..................................................................................... 10-6
− TC Bogus Scheme .................................................................... 10-9
− v_interp ................................................................................... 10-11
− proc_oml.f ............................................................................... 10-13
− Tools ...................................................................................... 10-14

Appendix A: WRF-Fire
− Introduction ................................................................................. A-1
− WRF_Fire in idealized cases ...................................................... A-3
− Fire variables in namelist.input .................................................. A-3
− namelist.fire ................................................................................ A-5
− Additional variables in output files for analysis............................ A-6
− Using WRF_Fire with real data ................................................... A-6
− Fire state variables ................................................................... A-12
− WRF-Fire software ................................................................... A-13

WRF-ARW V3: User’s Guide iii
CONTENTS

WRF-ARW V3: User’s Guide iv
OVERVIEW

Chapter 1: Overview

Table of Contents
• Introduction
• The WRF ARW Modeling System Program Components

Introduction
The Advanced Research WRF (ARW) modeling system has been in development for the
past few years. The current release is Version 3, available since April 2008. The ARW is
designed to be a flexible, state-of-the-art atmospheric simulation system that is portable
and efficient on available parallel computing platforms. The ARW is suitable for use in a
broad range of applications across scales ranging from meters to thousands of kilometers,
including:
• Idealized simulations (e.g. LES, convection, baroclinic waves)
• Parameterization research
• Data assimilation research
• Forecast research
• Real-time NWP
• Hurricane research
• Regional climate research
• Coupled-model applications
• Teaching
The Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Division of NCAR is currently maintaining
and supporting a subset of the overall WRF code (Version 3) that includes:
• WRF Software Framework (WSF)
• Advanced Research WRF (ARW) dynamic solver, including one-way, two-way
nesting and moving nest.
• The WRF Preprocessing System (WPS)
• WRF Data Assimilation (WRF-DA) system which currently supports 3DVAR
4DVAR, and hybrid data assimilation capabilities
• Numerous physics packages contributed by WRF partners and the research
community
• Several graphics programs and conversion programs for other graphics tools
And these are the subjects of this document.

WRF-ARW V3: User’s Guide 1-1
OVERVIEW

The WRF modeling system software is in the public domain and is freely available for
community use.
The WRF Modeling System Program Components
The following figure shows the flowchart for the WRF Modeling System Version 3.

As shown in the diagram, the WRF Modeling System consists of these major programs:
• The WRF Preprocessing System (WPS)
• WRF-Var
• ARW solver
• Post-processing & Visualization tools
WPS
This program is used primarily for real-data simulations. Its functions include 1) defining
simulation domains; 2) interpolating terrestrial data (such as terrain, landuse, and soil

WRF-ARW V3: User’s Guide 1-2
OVERVIEW

types) to the simulation domain; and 3) degribbing and interpolating meteorological data
from another model to this simulation domain. Its main features include:
• GRIB 1/2 meteorological data from various centers around the world
• USGS 24 category and MODIS 20 category land datasets
• Map projections for 1) polar stereographic, 2) Lambert-Conformal, 3) Mercator and
4) latitude-longitude
• Nesting
• User-interfaces to input other static data as well as met data
WRF-DA
This program is optional, but can be used to ingest observations into the interpolated
analyses created by WPS. It can also be used to update WRF model's initial conditions
when the WRF model is run in cycling mode. Its main features are as follows:
• It is based on an incremental variational data assimilation technique, and has both 3D-
Var and 4D-Var capabilities
• It also includes the capability of hybrid data assimilation (Variational + Ensemble)
• The conjugate gradient method is utilized to minimize the cost function in the
analysis control variable space
• Analysis is performed on an un-staggered Arakawa A-grid
• Analysis increments are interpolated to staggered Arakawa C-grid and it gets added to
the background (first guess) to get the final analysis of the WRF-model grid
• Conventional observation data input may be supplied either in ASCII format via the
“obsproc” utility or “PREPBUFR” format.
• Multiple satellite observation data input may be supplied in BUFR format
• Multiple radar data (reflectivity & radial velocity) input is supplied through ASCII
format
• Multiple outer loop to address the nonlinearity
• Capability to compute adjoint sensitivity
• Horizontal component of the background (first guess) error is represented via a
recursive filter (for regional) or power spectrum (for global). The vertical component
is applied through projections on climatologically generated averaged eigenvectors
and its corresponding Eigen values
• Horizontal and vertical background errors are non-separable. Each eigenvector has its
own horizontal climatologically-determined length scale
• Preconditioning of the background part of the cost function is done via the control
variable transform U defined as B= UUT
• It includes the “gen_be” utility to generate the climatological background error
covariance estimate via the NMC-method or ensemble perturbations
• A utility program to update WRF boundary condition file after WRF-DA

WRF-ARW V3: User’s Guide 1-3