NAME

wrfvdfcreate - Generate a VDF metadata file for a WRF data set

SYNOPSIS

wrfvdfcreate [options] wrf_ncdf_file... vdffile

DESCRIPTION

wrfvdfcreate generates a .vdf metafile that will define a VAPOR Data Collection (VDC) suitable for containing Weather Research Forecast (WRF) simulation output. In the first form of the command one or more WRF netCDF files are used as templates for generating vdffile. This is the recommended usage.

OPTIONS

-vars <vars>

Colon delimited list of variables to be copied from ncdf data. The default is to copy all 2D and 3D variables.

<-dervars> <vars>

A colon-delimited list of variables that are to be derived from WRF data during conversion with the wrf2vdf command. These include:

PHNorm_: the normalized geopotential (PH+PHB)/PHB;

UVW_: the three-dimensional wind speed (U^2+V^2+W^2)^1/2;

UV_: the two-dimensional wind speed (U^2+V^2)^1/2;

omZ_: a rough estimate of the vertical vorticity;

PFull_: the full pressure P+PB;

PNorm_: the normalized pressure (P+PB)/PB;

Theta_: the potential temperature T+300; and

TK_: the temperature in Kelvin, TK_ = (T + 300) * ((P+PB)/100000)^0.286

No other arguments to this option may be given.

-atypvars <vars>

Atypical variable names. When calculating the ELEVATION variable as well as several derived variables (see below), wrfvdfcreate and wrf2vdf assume that the wind components are named U, V, and W, the perturbation pressure is named P, the base pressure is PB, the perturbation geopotential is PH, and the base geopotential is PHB. If any one of these variables has a name other than these (for example, some users have wind components named U1, V1, W1), this option must be given. Its argument is a colon delimited list of the actual names of the variables which are typically named U:V:W:PH:PHB:P:PB:T. The list must be given in that order and contain all 8 elements, even if some of these eight variables have the expected names.

-level <level>

See vdfcreate.

-comment <string>

See vdfcreate.

-bs <NXxNYxNZ>

See vdfcreate.

-nfilter <n>

See vdfcreate.

-nlifting <n>

See vdfcreate.

-vdc2

Generate a .vdf file for a VDC Type 2 data collection.

-append

Append wrf_ncdf_file... to vdffile. In the case that vdffile already exists, this option can be used to append new time steps to vdffile. The input files, wrf_ncdf_file..., must have idenitcal dimensions and variables to those used to create the original .vdf file.

-wname <wave_name>

This option (VDC2 only), see vdfcreate.

-cratios <vector>

This option (VDC2 only), see vdfcreate.

-help

Print a usage statement and then exit.

EXAMPLES

The command

    wrfvdfcreate -vars3d P:T -level 2 wrf1.ncdf wrf2.ncdf wrf3.ncdf mydata.vdf

will construct a VDF file, mydata.vdf that will contain the P and T variable names for all time steps found in the WRF netCDF files wrf1.ncdf, wrf2.ncdf, and wrf3.ncdf.

SEE ALSO

vdfcreate, wrf2vdf,

Conversion of WRF-ARW datafiles to a VAPOR VDC

HISTORY

Last updated on $Date$