UPP User Release Version 3.0

The Unified Post Processor Version 3.0 was released on May 05, 2015.

Also see 'Known Problems' in this release, which is updated as needed.

UPP Version 3.0 new features, updates and bug fixes

• NEMS-NMMB in UPP
  • UPP can now process NEMS/NMMB model data. Please see NMMB Documentation for more information.
• New Synthetic Satellite Fields
  • New satellite fields have been added; some existing fields were modified/updated: 

    GOES-13 (channels 2 through 5)
    GOES-15 (channels 2 through 5)
    SEVIRI (channels 5 through 11)
    SSMI (satellite F13, F14 and F15 to include the 19H, 19V, 37H, 37V, 85H and 85V channels)
    SSMIS (satellites F16, F17, F18, F19 and F20 to include the 183H, 19H, 19V, 37H, 37V, 91H and 91V channels).

• Virtual Temperature
  • Virtual Temperature can now be output from UPP on model, pressure, and flight levels.
• Run Scripts
  • The run_unipost* scripts were updated to include NMMB. They were also modified for clarity and ease of by consolidating user-modified information into one section at the top of the script. See User's Guide for more information. A new run script "run_unipostandgrads_global" contributed to handle global WRF files.
• Radar Reflectivities with Thompson Microphysics
  • Radar reflectivity diagnostics can now be output directly by the model (WRF/NMMB) for certain microphysics. Currently UPP is hardcoded to either use the model output directly or compute reflectivity fields internally. When using Thompson microphysics in either WRF or NMMB, UPP is currently hardcoded to use model-derived reflectivity. Thus, when requesting fields such as radar on model levels, composite reflectivity, reflectivity 1km AGL, and echo tops when running Thompson microphysics, these fields must be written to the model output files; UPP will not compute these fields internally. *** Work is underway to provide more user control to select where radar reflectivity diagnostics are coming from for each microphysics, i.e. direct from model output (WRF/ NMMB) or calculated within UPP code.
• UPPV3.0 - WRFV3.7 with Ferrier Microphysics
  • UPPV3.0 is dependent on WRFV3.7 for correct processing of simulations using Ferrier microphysics. This is because UPP has been upgraded to handle Ferrier-Aligo microphysics, which is not yet available in WRF code. If using Ferrier microphysics (mp_physics=5) in a WRF version less than v3.7, you will need to modify your metadata in your wrfout files. For example one could use NCO utilities:
  • ncatted -O -a MP_PHYSICS,global,o,c,95 \ wrfout_d02_2010-06-25_12:00:00

    WRFV3.7: "The Ferrier microphysics option (mp_physics=5) has been moved to mp_physics=95 in preparation for an updated package which will be available in the next release."

• Preliminary Grib2 Output Capabilities
  • To address increased requests from the community for GRIB2 output format, UPPV3.0 includes a preliminary capability for use in an exploratory mode at this time. This feature is considered a beta-release; it has not been fully tested and does not work robustly for all models and cases. Work is underway to resolve additional issues and enhance the portability. Updates to GRIB2 capabilities will continue to be provided as they become available. It should be noted that copygb does not support GRIB2 and therefore cannot be run on GRIB2 output from unipost; this will be an issue with NMM and NMMB data. ARW will only be impacted if one chooses to optionally re-grid using copygb. We welcome feedback from community users to help expand this capability. Please see the UPP users’ guide for more information on how to output GRIB2.