The Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) is pleased to announce the Common Community Physics Package (CCPP) v7.0.0 public release on September 9, 2024. This release contains the CCPP Physics, a library of physical parameterizations, the CCPP Framework, an infrastructure that connects the physics to host models, and the CCPP Single-Column Model (SCM), a simple host model that employs the CCPP Physics and CCPP Framework. Additional information and access to the code can be found here.

The CCPP Physics is envisioned to contain host-agnostic operational and developmental parameterizations for weather through seasonal prediction timescales and is connected to the Unified Forecast System (UFS) used operationally by NOAA. This release contains the following new schemes:

• Radiative Transfer for Energetics and Rapid Radiative Transfer Model for General circulation model applications - Parallel (RTE+RRTMGP) scheme

• Community Land Model (CLM) lake scheme

• Unified Gravity Wave Physics - Version 1 (UGWPv1)

Additionally, this release includes updates to a number of schemes (see details here )

Enhancements to the CCPP Framework for Version 7.0.0 include a revised handling of optional variables to provide standard optional variable functionality within the Framework, a new requirement for MPI (2008 or greater), added support for multiple CCPP instances within the same executable (or MPI task), and code improvements and bug fixes.

The CCPP SCM includes changes to run selected physics configurations in either single- or double-precision, the ability to create and run new SCM cases from standard UFS output files, additional SCM cases derived from field-campaigns (MOSAiC and COMBLE), and limited support for use with Nvidia compilers. With the functionality to create SCM cases from UFS simulations, the SCM can now be run with an active land surface or lake model. In addition to these new cases, five experimental cases are available for use with the CCPP SCM: BOMEX maritime shallow convection, LASSO continental shallow convection, ASTEX stratocumulus-to-cumulus transition, ARM SGP Summer 1997 continental deep convection, and TWP-ICE maritime deep convection.

The CCPP parameterizations are aggregated in suites by the host applications. CCPP v7.0.0 is supported for use with the CCPP SCM and includes the following supported suites: GFS_v16, WoFS_v0, HRRR_gf, GFS_v17_p8_ugwpv1, and GFS_v16_RRTMGP. Suites from previous releases are no longer supported. Physics suites included with the CCPP SCM are developmental “snapshots” and will continue to evolve  over time.

For access to the SCM and CCPP code and documentation, please visit the CCPP website at https://dtcenter.org/ccpp, where you will find a Users’ Guide, a list of known issues, frequently-asked questions, technical documentation, and scientific documentation. For information about the UFS please visit https://ufscommunity.org/. 

For questions or comments about the CCPP and the SCM, please use our Github discussions at https://github.com/NCAR/ccpp-physics/discussions. When using CCPP with the UFS, you can also direct your questions to the UFS Github discussions.

DTC CCPP team (Ligia Bernardet, Lulin Xue, Dustin Swales, Grant Firl, Man Zhang, Mike Kavulich, Weiwei Li, Soren Rasmussen, Tracy Hertneky, Samuel Trahan, Mike Ek, and Jimy Dudhia)

The DTC is pleased to announce the release of the multi-component verification framework called the enhanced Model Evaluation Tools (MET), or METplus (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5567804). METplus contains a suite of Python wrappers and ancillary scripts to enhance the user's ability to quickly set-up and run MET. METplus also has an analysis suite including METviewer and METexpress user interfaces and METdataio, METcalcpy, and METplotpy as shared packages for loading and storing MET output as well as aggregating and plotting results. This coordinated release includes:

• METplus version 5.0 - Release Notes
• MET version 11.0 - Release Notes

METplus Analysis Suite, comprised of:

• METviewer version 5.0 - Release Notes
• METexpress version 5.0 - Release Notes
• METdataio 2.0 - Release Notes
• METcalcpy 2.0 - Release Notes
• METplotpy 2.0 - Release Notes

Highlights –  

METplus Wrappers

• Updated Framework: 
  • NOTE: Use cases that include EnsembleStat wrapper will require config file updates. See METplus Wrappers Upgrade Instructions
  • Additional changes: The LOOP_ORDER config variable was removed. This may change the order that commands are executed in a use case, but it should not change the results., METplus Dockerfile was moved to internal/scripts/docker,, default value of SCRUB_STAGING_DIR is now True, default value of METPLUS_CONF now includes the LOG_TIMESTAMP so each METplus run will generate a unique final config file, e.g. metplus_final.conf.20220921121733.
• Updated Wrappers: Enhance MODE wrapper to support multi-variate MODE, allow FCST_IS_PROB variable setting specific to tool (FCST_<tool_name>_IS_PROB), enhance climatology field settings to be consistent with fcst/obs field, update the EnsembleStat wrapper and use case examples to remove ensemble post processing logic
• New use cases: PANDA-C, MJO-ENSO diagnostics, Probability of Exceedence for 85th percentile temperatures, FV3 Physics Tendency plotting, Python Embedding using IODA v2.0, Python Embedding to read native Met Office LFRic grid (u-grid),

MET

• Updated Capability: Restructure the contents of the MET repository so that it matches the existing release tarfiles, remove ensemble post-processing from the Ensemble-Stat tool, enhanced MET’s NetCDF library interface to support level strings that include coordinate variable values instead of just indexes, added a Python helper script/function to transform point_data objects to met_point_data objects for Python Embedding
• New Statistics: Anomaly Correlation Coefficient to VCNT Line Type, 2x2 HSS calculations to include user-defined EC values, Fair CRPS statistic to the ECNT line type, MAE to the ECNT line type from Ensemble-Stat and for HiRA, Mean Absolute Difference (SPREAD_MD) to the ECNT line type, Bias ratio statistic to the ECNT line type from Ensemble-Stat and for HiRA, SEEPS in Point-Stat and Grid-Stat
• New Support: IODA2NC to support IODA v2.0 format, EPA AirNow ASCII data in ASCII2NC, NDBC buoy data in ASCII2NC
• New Diagnostics: TC-Pairs to read hurricane model diagnostic files (e.g. SHIPS) and TC-Stat to filter the new data, TC-Pairs consensus logic to compute the spread of the location, wind speed, and pressure

METplus Analysis Suite

• Added new line types (related to VCNT, SPREAD, SEEPS, CRPS) to METviewer plotting
• Migrated METexpress to using METcalcpy for calculations
• Create a MET data reformatter to allow METcalcpy and METplotpy to be run on the command line without calls to a database
• Added Zonal and Meridional Mean calculations, a MJO ENSO use case,  Revision Series to METviewer, Python-based scorecard capability

Visit the DTC METplus User Support page to find online tutorials, video trainings, and documentation for all components of METplus.

Support for US-based HPCs:  Over the next week, METplus 5.0 and components will be installed on several US-based high performance computing platforms (e.g. Cheyenne, Jet, Hera, Acorn, and Frontera) to make it more accessible to both the research and operations community.  Please see the list of existing builds. Additionally, an Amazon Web Service (AWS) Machine Image (AMI) will be made available for use with data hosted on AWS. NOTE: METviewer and METexpress are intended to be installed on your local server. 

Save these dates:  METplus Advanced Training Series begins in February 2023 and will run through May 2023.  Sign up for updates on the METplus Website

The Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) is pleased to announce the Common Community Physics Package (CCPP) v6.0.0 public release on June 29,2022. This release contains the CCPP Physics, a library of physical parameterizations, the CCPP Framework, an infrastructure that connects the physics to host models, and the CCPP Single Column Model (SCM), a simple host model that employs the CCPP Physics and CCPP Framework. Additional information and access to the code can be found here.

The CCPP Physics is envisioned to contain parameterizations used in the NOAA Unified Forecast System (UFS) for weather through seasonal prediction timescales, as well as developmental schemes under consideration for upcoming operational implementations.  This release contains updated versions of parameterizations used in NOAA’s operational Global Forecast System (GFS) v16 (implemented in 2021), new schemes (the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory two-moment microphysics parameterization, the NOAA Global Systems Laboratory Drag Suite, and the Mellow-Yamada-Nakanishi-Niino surface layer scheme), as well as updated versions of developmental schemes. Additional features include stochastically-perturbed parameterizations and a cellular automata stochastic convective organization capability. 

Updates to the CCPP Framework include a new treatment for optional variables, two additional elective phases for the schemes to give them the ability to run selected processes at the beginning and end of a timestep, the ability to track which schemes use a given variable within a suite, and a stub capability to build the basic software caps needed for the compilation of the host model without including any of the physics itself. To facilitate CCPP development, a dictionary of standard names has been created to catalog the names in use and to provide a set of rules for creating new names.

Changes in the SCM include the ability to build using libraries provided via the HPC Stack distribution (replacing the previously-used NCEPLIBS and NCEPLIBS-externals distributions), the combination of single- and multi-run capabilities into one script, an update to the vertical coordinate code to better match the latest Finite-Volume Cubed-Sphere (FV3) vertical coordinate, a simplification of the case configuration name lists, and greater flexibility for output location (outside of bin directory). As in the previous release, five experimental cases are available for use with the CCPP SCM: BOMEX maritime shallow convection, LASSO continental shallow convection, ASTEX stratocumulus-to-cumulus transition, ARM SGP Summer 1997 continental deep convection, and TWP-ICE maritime deep convection.

The CCPP parameterizations are aggregated in suites by the host models. CCPP v6.0.0 is supported for use with the UFS Short Range Weather Application v2 (suites GFS_v16, RRFS_v1beta, WoFS_v0, and HRRR) and with the CCPP SCM (all suites available for SRW Application v2 plus the GFSv17_p8 and RAP suites). All suites supported with CCPP v5 have been deprecated. The CCPP v6.0.0 is not intended for use with the UFS Medium-Range Weather Application but a later version will be. 

For access to the SCM and CCPP code and documentation, please visit the CCPP website at https://dtcenter.org/ccpp, where you will find a Users’ Guide, a list of known issues, frequently-asked questions, technical documentation, and scientific documentation. For information about the UFS, including its use with CCPP, please visit https://ufscommunity.org/. 

For questions or comments about the CCPP and the SCM, please use our Forum at http://dtcenter.org/forum/ccpp-user-support. When using CCPP with the UFS, you can also direct your questions to the UFS community forum.

Ligia Bernardet and Mike Ek, on behalf of the DTC CCPP team (Grant Firl, Man Zhang, Mike Kavulich, Dustin Swales, and Jimy Dudhia)

This release represents a major effort to refactor the UPP code to implement a 2-Dimensional decomposition capability.  This development was led by UPP developers at NOAA’s Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) with funding through the Hurricane Supplemental funding line.  Please see the Users Guide in links below for details on how to use this capability.  

Release Highlights:

• Capability added to decompose grids in both x- and y-directions.

• 1D (y-direction only) decomposition is still available.

• Identical results are expected for 1D vs 2D.

• Testing indicated no deterioration in run time and in many cases reduction in run time for existing configurations/applications.

• Further timing improvement expected especially for larger domains.

• Support for this feature has been implemented in offline standalone UPP and inline UPP.

• 2D decomposition is only supported for UFS based model outputs.

User Support

User help questions may be posted to the online UFS forum:

https://forums.ufscommunity.org/forum/post-processing

Questions may also be posted to the GitHub repository Discussions Board: 

https://github.com/NOAA-EMC/UPP/discussions

The UPP Users' Guide for this release can be found at: https://upp.readthedocs.io/en/upp_v11.0.0/

Download Information:

The preferred method for obtaining the code is to clone the release from GitHub.  Please visit the download page for links and more release information: https://dtcenter.org/community-code/unified-post-processor-upp/download. 

Best Regards,

The UPP Teams at EMC and DTC 

The Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) is pleased to announce the release of the Unified Post Processor Version 10.1.0.  This release can be used in standalone mode and is also the version to be used as the post processor component in the upcoming UFS Short Range Weather (SRW) and Medium Range Weather (MRW) Application releases.  

Release Highlights

Since the last public release was announced, a number of features have changed, notably:

• HPC-stack is used for prerequisite NCEPLIBS libraries

• NEMSIO format is no longer supported

• The itag was updated to be a formal Fortran namelist

Development and internal releases continued after the previous public release. Updates to this specific release include:

• Unification of the global and regional FV3 interfaces and use of parallel NetCDF

• Updates to the User Guide

• Several bug fixes

• Significant efforts to translate existing source code to Doxygen

• Details about updates included in this release can be found on the GitHub releases page.

User Support

User help questions may be posted to the online UFS forum:

https://forums.ufscommunity.org/forum/post-processing

Questions may also be posted to the GitHub repository Discussions Board: 

https://github.com/NOAA-EMC/UPP/discussions

The UPP Users' Guide for this release can be found at: https://upp.readthedocs.io/en/upp_v10.1.0/

Technical code-level documentation: 

https://noaa-emc.github.io/UPP/

Download Information:

The preferred method for obtaining the code is to clone the release from GitHub.  Please visit the download page for links and more release information: https://dtcenter.org/community-code/unified-post-processor-upp/download.

This release is the result of the joint efforts of NOAA/NCEP and DTC through the support of NOAA and the National Science Foundation (NSF). We would like to thank contributors from NCEP, the DTC, and from the user community who have contributed to this release. 

Best Regards,

The UPP Team

The Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) is pleased to announce the release of version 4.0.0 of their end-to-end containerized numerical weather prediction (NWP) system. These software containers have been established for community use to quickly spin up an NWP forecast system [using the WRF Pre-Processing System (WPS), Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, and Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) data assimilation] that can then be post-processed [using the Unified Post Processor (UPP)] and verified [using the Model Evaluation Tools (MET)], with plotting capabilities providing using Python.

You can learn more about running this system using either Docker or Singularity containers on a hard-iron machine or on the cloud using Amazon Web Services (AWS) by working through our Online Tutorial.

Release notes in the form of GitHub issues describing the enhancements/updates in this version can be found here.

More information on this DTC project can be found on our project webpage.

The GitHub repository is located at https://github.com/NCAR/container-dtc-nwp and a GitHub Discussions board is available for posting questions and keeping informed of announcements. 

The DTC is pleased to announce the release of the multi-component verification framework called the enhanced Model Evaluation Tools (METplus), or METplus. METplus contains a suite of Python wrappers and ancillary scripts to enhance the user's ability to quickly set-up and run MET. METplus also has an analysis suite including METviewer and METexpress user interfaces and METdatadb, METcalcpy, and METplotpy as shared packages for loading and storing MET output as well as aggregating and plotting results. This coordinated release includes:

• METplus version 4.1.0 - Release Notes
• MET version 10.1.0 - Release Notes

METplus Analysis Suite, comprised of:

• METviewer version 4.1.0 - Release Notes
• METexpress version 4.4.0 - Coming Soon.
  • In the interim, METexpress version 4.3.1 is available – Release Notes
• METdatadb 1.1.0 - Release Notes
• METcalcpy 1.1.0 - Release Notes
• METplotpy 1.1.0 - Release Notes

Highlights – 3 new tool wrappers, 19 new Use Cases, 7 new statistics, Ensemble-Stat split into Gen-Ens-Prod and Ensemble Stat, new ensemble evaluation capability, significant increases in support for Python Embedding, added functionality to TC tools, the inclusion of Multivariate MODE (MvMODE) configuration options, lots of new S2S and Marine/Cryosphere diagnostic methods, a complete transition to Python for aggregation and plotting in METviewer (via METcalcpy and METplotpy), and the inclusion of a new MODE application in METexpress. Please visit the METplus Training Series Agenda and Recordings page – Session 13 dropdown to see a recording and overview presentation.  Sessions 1-12 are also posted and freely available for viewing and training.

Support for US-based HPCs:  Over the next week, METplus 4.1.0 and components will be installed on several US-based high performance computing platforms (e.g. Cheyenne, Jet, Hera, WCOSS, and Stampede) to make it more accessible to both the research and operations community.  Please see the list of existing builds. NOTE: METviewer and METexpress are intended to be installed on your local server.

Save these dates:  1st DTC METplus Users’ Workshop – Jun 27-29, held virtually

The UFS Short-Range Weather (SRW) Application v1.0.1 was publicly released on 9/16/2021. More information on this bug fix release can be found under the “Release Notes” section of the SRW App umbrella repository wiki page. The UFS SRW App targets predictions of atmospheric behavior on a limited spatial domain and on time scales from less than an hour out to several days. It is the foundation for building NOAA’s future convection-allowing ensemble forecast system, known as the Rapid Refresh Forecast System (RRFS).

Public releases of the UFS SRW App result from a collaboration between several cooperative institutes and universities, the Developmental Testbed Center (DTC), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The release is available through the GitHub repository https://github.com/ufs-community/ufs-srweather-app, with full documentation available at https://ufs-srweather-app.readthedocs.io/en/ufs-v1.0.1 and support available through the UFS forums https://forums.ufscommunity.org/.

The DTC is pleased to announce the release of the multi-component verification framework called the enhanced Model Evaluation Tools (METplus), or METplus. METplus contains a suite of Python wrappers and ancillary scripts to enhance the user's ability to quickly set-up and run MET. METplus also has an analysis suite including METviewer and METexpress user interfaces and METdatadb, METcalcpy, and METplotpy as shared packages for loading and storing MET output as well as aggregating and plotting results. This coordinated release includes:

• METplus version 4.0.0 - Release Notes
• MET version 10.0.0 - Release Notes
• METviewer version 4.0.0 -  Release Notes
• METexpress version 4.1.0 -  Release Notes
• METdatadb 1.0.0 -  Release Notes
• METcalcpy 1.0.0 -  Release Notes
• METplotpy 1.0.0 -  Release Notes

Highlights

METplus version 4.0.0 framework:

• Added support for many commonly changed MET config variables
• New use-cases:
  • Air Quality and Comp: EnsembleStat_fcstICAP_obsMODIS_aod
  • Medium Range: UserScript_fcstGEFS_Difficulty_Index
  • Convection Allowing Models: MODE_fcstFV3_obsGOES_BrightnessTemp
  • Convection Allowing Models: MODE_fcstFV3_obsGOES_BrightnessTempObjs
  • Convection Allowing Models: GridStat_fcstFV3_obsGOES_BrightnessTempDmap
  • Data Assimilation: StatAnalysis_fcstHAFS_obsPrepBufr_JEDI_IODA_interface
  • Medium Range: SeriesAnalysis_fcstGFS_obsGFS_FeatureRelative_SeriesByLead_PyEmbed_Multiple_Diagnostics
  • Precipitation: EnsembleStat_fcstWOFS_obsWOFS
  • Seasonal to Subseasonal: TCGen_fcstGFSO_obsBDECKS_GDF_TDF
  • Seasonal to Subseasonal: UserScript_fcstGFS_obsERA_Blocking
  • Seasonal to Subseasonal: UserScript_obsERA_obsOnly_Blocking
  • Seasonal to Subseasonal: UserScript_obsERA_obsOnly_WeatherRegime
  • Seasonal to Subseasonal: UserScript_obsPrecip_obsOnly_Hovmoeller
  • Seasonal to Subseasonal: UserScript_obsPrecip_obsOnly_CrossSpectraPlot
  • TC and Extra TC: CyclonePlotter_fcstGFS_obsGFS_OPC
  • TC and Extra TC: UserScript_ASCII2NC_PointStat_fcstHAFS_obsFRD_NetCDF
  • TC and Extra TC: GridStat_fcstHAFS_obsTDR_NetCDF
  • Marine and Coastal: PlotDataPlane_obsHYCOM_coordTripolar
  • MET Tool Wrapper: METdbLoad/METdbLoad
  • MET Tool Wrapper: PlotDataPlane/PlotDataPlane_grib1
  • MET Tool Wrapper: PlotDataPlane/PlotDataPlane_netcdf
  • MET Tool Wrapper: PlotDataPlane/PlotDataPlane_python_embedding
  • MET Tool Wrapper: GridStat/GridStat_python_embedding
  • MET Tool Wrapper: PointStat/PointStat_python_embedding
  • MET Tool Wrapper: MODE/MODE_python_embedding
  • MET Tool Wrapper: PyEmbedIngest_multi_field_one_file

MET version 10.0.0 - Enhance support for rotated latlon grids, modified climatological Brier Score computation to match the NOAA/EMC VSDB method, support additional NetCDF point observation data sources, inclusion of the Multivariate MODE capability and ioda2nc tool, and added support for the Hersbach CRPS algorithm by add new columns to the ECNT line type.

METviewer version 4.0.0 – Support for new MET line-types and aggregation of MET statistics, use of circular bootstrap method, added Equivalence Testing Bounds plots, Support weights in scorecards, transition of capability to Python.

METexpress version 4.1.0 - Added MET TC app, Performance diagrams to MET Ensemble and MATS contingency table apps.

This is the first numbered release for the following components:

METdatadb 1.0.0 -  Python scripts for loading and managing METplus results database.
METcalcpy 1.0.0 and METplotpy 1.0.0 - Added calculation and plots for many METviewer plots as well as new diagnostics (see METplus use-cases)

SUPPORT FOR US-BASED HPCS

Over the next week, METplus 4.0.0 and components will be installed on several US-based high performance computing platforms (e.g. Cheyenne, Jet, Hera, WCOSS, and Stampede) to make it more accessible to both the research and operations community.  Please see the list of existing builds. NOTE: METviewer and METexpress are intended to be installed on your local server.

The Developmental Testbed Center is pleased to announce the Common Community Physics Package (CCPP) v5.0.0 public release on March 08, 2021. This release contains the CCPP-Physics, a library of physical parameterizations, the CCPP-Framework, an infrastructure  that connects the physics to host models, and the CCPP Single Column Model, a simple host model that employs the CCPP-Physics and CCPP-Framework. Additional information and access to the code can be found here.

The CCPP-Physics is envisioned to contain parameterizations used in the NOAA Unified Forecast System (UFS) for weather through seasonal prediction timescales, as well as developmental schemes under consideration for upcoming operational implementations.  This release contains updated versions of all parameterizations used in NOAA’s operational Global Forecast System (GFS) v15.2 (implemented in 2019), a new scheme (the Noah Multi-Parameterization land surface scheme), plus updated versions of  developmental schemes. New capabilities include additional debugging tools and the ability to output physical tendencies from individual parameterizations and developer-customized arrays.

There are some important changes in the CCPP-Framework in this release. To increase performance while enabling flexibility, the build system has been consolidated around the multi-suite static option and the dynamic build capability has been removed.

Changes in the SCM include the ability to use CCPP v5.0.0, configuration of tracers externally via a file, updated surface initialization code, updated case generation script to better handle LSM-related variables when using initial conditions from the Unified Forecast System, and bug fixes. In addition, there was a change in file names and in the authoritative code repository name (now ccpp-scm) to reflect the close tie between the SCM and the CCPP.

As in the last release, five experimental cases are available for use with the CCPP SCM: BOMEX maritime shallow convection, LASSO continental shallow convection, ASTEX stratocumulus-to-cumulus transition, ARM SGP Summer 1997 continental deep convection, and TWP-ICE maritime deep convection.

The CCPP parameterizations are aggregated in suites by the host models. The DTC provides support for using CCPP v5.0.0 with the CCPP SCM (suites GFS_v15p2, GFS_v16beta, csawmg, and GSD_v1) and with the Unified Forecast System (UFS) Short Range v1 Application (suites GFS_v15p2, RRFS_v1alpha). Suite RRFS_v1alpha is new in this release and is intended for use in convective-allowing configurations. The CCPP v5.0.0 is not intended for use with the UFS Medium-Range Weather Application v1. For access to the SCM and CCPP code and documentation, please visit the CCPP website at https://dtcenter.org/ccpp, where you will find a Users’ Guide, a list of known issues, frequently-asked questions, technical documentation, and scientific documentation. For information about the UFS, including its use with CCPP, please visit https://ufscommunity.org/. 

For questions or comments about the CCPP and the SCM, please use our Forum at http://dtcenter.org/forum/ccpp-user-support. When using CCPP with the UFS, you can also direct your questions to the UFS community forum.

Ligia Bernardet and Mike Ek, on behalf of the DTC CCPP team (Dom Heinzeller, Grant Firl, Laurie Carson, Man Zhang, Julie Schramm, Xia Sun, and LInlin Pan)

Dear UPP Community,
 

The Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) is pleased to announce the release of the Unified Post Processor Version 9.0.0. This release marks another major change in the UPP code base, by adding support for the newly released Short-Range Weather Application (the limited-area application of the Unified Forecast System) and discontinuing support for WRF and GRIB1 data. Users of UPP with WRF data should continue to use the UPP V4.1 release, as this most recent release does not support WRF output.

Users will note that the release version numbering has skipped ahead from 4 to 9; this is part of a larger unification effort with National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operations, and the development of the Unified Forecast System. Please review the updates carefully.

The build procedure and software dependencies have been updated to fit within the UFS software framework. The motivation for these changes is to further align the community software with operational software, to help facilitate code management procedures. Changes include:

• Use of CMake for building/installing
• Build dependency on the official NCEPLIBS package (https://github.com/NOAA-EMC/NCEPLIBS) rather than the NCAR fork
• CRTM coefficient fix files are now packaged separate from the code base.

Please carefully read the new procedures on the UPP Users webpage or in the V9.0.0 Users’ Guide (https://upp.readthedocs.io/en/upp-v9.0.0/) for building the software. 

Major Improvements and New Features include:

• FV3 limited-area model (LAM) data is now supported (netCDF format only)
• FV3GFS global model data now supports nemsio format in addition to netCDF
• CRTM updated to v2.3.0

Additional release notes:

• CRTM coefficient fix files are now packaged separate from the code base. 
  • Can be downloaded from the Github Release page (https://github.com/NOAA-EMC/EMC_post/releases/tag/upp-v9.0.0) 
• Support for WRF model data and GRIB1 data has been removed

Download Information:
The preferred method for obtaining the code is to download the release from GitHub.  Please visit the download page for links and more release information: https://dtcenter.org/community-code/unified-post-processor-upp/download.

Users can sign up for updates regarding the UPP software package at: https://dtcenter.org/community-code/unified-post-processor-upp/subscribe

For help with installing and running this version of UPP, or to send questions or comments related to the UPP software package, please visit the UFS community forum: https://forums.ufscommunity.org/forum/post-processing

This release is the result of the joint efforts of NOAA/NCEP and DTC through the support of NOAA and the National Science Foundation (NSF). We would like to thank contributors from NCEP, the DTC, and from the user community who have contributed to this release.

Please stay tuned for future announcements regarding the UPP software.  

Best Regards,

The UPP Team

The UFS Short-Range Weather (SRW) Application v1.0.0 was publicly released on 3/4/2021. A news article is available at https://www.weather.gov/news/210403-ufs and a full release description can be found at https://ufscommunity.org/news/srwa.  This is the first major release of the application that targets predictions of atmospheric behavior on a limited spatial domain and on time scales from less than an hour out to several days. The UFS SRW App is the foundation for building NOAA’s future convection-allowing ensemble forecast system, known as the Rapid Refresh Forecast System (RRFS).

The first public release of the SRW App results from a collaboration between several cooperative institutes and universities, the Developmental Testbed Center (DTC), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The release is available through the GitHub repository https://github.com/ufs-community/ufs-srweather-app, with full documentation available at https://ufs-srweather-app.readthedocs.io/en/ufs-v1.0.0 and support available through the UFS forums https://forums.ufscommunity.org/.

The Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) is pleased to announce the release of the METexpress application, Version 3.0.1 (dated Oct. 7, 2020).  METexpress is a simplified data analysis visualization component of the enhanced Model Evaluation Tools (METplus) verification system.  

Download & Installation

To download this version of METexpress please visit: http://www.dtcenter.org/community-code/metexpress/metexpress-version-3-0-1.  To view details about this release including a list of updates, modifications, and bug fixes, go to: https://github.com/dtcenter/METexpress/releases/tag/v3.0.1.

METexpress can only be installed from Docker images.  The most recent images are maintained by METexpress developers and are available in the DockerHub repository.

Code Repository

METexpress is a community software package managed by the Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) and is available from the DTCcenter GitHub repository. This repository includes a README.md file in the top-level directory that covers an overview and build instructions, with further links to installation instructions.  

METexpress was developed under funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA’s) Next Generation Global Prediction System Program at NOAA's Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) Global Systems Laboratory (GSL), based on a verification system developed in-house at GSL named the Model Analysis Tool Suite (MATS). The continued support and development efforts are made possible through the generous support of the DTC partners, including: United States Air Force, NOAA, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

For METexpress questions and support, please email mats.gsl@noaa.gov.

The UFS Medium-Range Application v1.1.0 was publicly released on 10/06/2020. This is a minor release of the system that predicts atmospheric behavior out to about two weeks. New capabilities in this release include the ability to ingest GFS raw initial conditions in netCDF format (to be introduced with GFSv16), flexibility to customize the post processor output, and safeguards against occasional extreme sea surface temperatures present in the initial conditions. This release is compatible with Python 3 and with recent computational system updates for all preconfigured platforms. Updated documentation and codes can be found at https://ufscommunity.org/science/code.

The Developmental Testbed Center is pleased to announce the Common Community Physics Package (CCPP) v4.1.0 public release on October 5, 2020. This release contains the three elements of the CCPP: the CCPP-Physics, a library of physical parameterizations, the CCPP-Framework, an infrastructure  that connects the physics to host models, and the CCPP Single Column Model, a simple host model that employs the CCPP-Physics and CCPP-Framework. A complete list of capabilities associated with the CCPP v4 series can be found here. In this minor release the code has been upgraded for compatibility with Python 3.

The enhanced Model Evaluation Tools (METplus) development team at the DTC is pleased to announce the release of the multi-component verification capability called METplus.  It includes METplus version 3.1, MET version 9.1 and METviewer version 3.1. METplus contains a suite of Python wrappers and ancillary scripts to enhance the user's ability to quickly set-up and run MET.  METviewer is a database and display system for aggregating and plotting MET output.  Users can now check everything out and build through the METplus website.  

METPLUS 3.1 and components may be obtained via the METplus Downloads Page. 

• Major Enhancements: Enable METplus to only process certain months of a year for seasonal verification, added curl possibility to build_components build MET script, added many more examples of using Python Embedding (e.g. for Feature Relative evaluation and use of StatAnalysis to evaluation point forecasts), GenVxMask, and computing Surrogate Severe and Practically Perfect Prognosis fields.
• Current supported use cases and examples (new are bolded):
  
  • Simple examples of running met_tool_wrappers: ASCII2NC, CyclonePlotter, EnsembleStat, GenVxMask, GridDiag, GridStat, MODE, MTD, PB2NC, PCPCombine, Point2Grid, PointStat, RegridDataPlane, SeriesAnalysis, StatAnalysis, TCGen, TCMPRPlotter, TCRMW, TCPairs, TCStat
  • More complex examples relevant to model_applications (new are bolded): Climate, Convection Allowing Models, Ensemble, Marine and Cryosphere, Medium Range, Precipitation, Space Weather, Subseasonal to Seasonal, Tropical Cyclone and Extra-Tropical Cyclone
• Full details can be found in the release notes.
• METplus 3.0 Online Tutorial covers much of the functionality of this release, including examples of how to run the components individually.

MET 9.1 is also available via the METplus Downloads Page and as a Docker Container via DockerHub.

• Major Enhancements:  Documentation: Transitioned to the Web.  Statistics: complement version of the Ranked Probability Score (RPS_COMP), the uncentered Anomaly Correlation (ANOM_CORR_UNCNTR). Improved: Grid-Diag, Point2Grid, and TC-Gen tools, Fortify: Compliance with zero high risk findings.
• Documentation: may be found at https://ncar.github.io/MET/
• Full details can be found in the release notes.
• For MET 9.1, please refer to the METplus 3.0 Online Tutorial covers much of the functionality of this release, including examples of how to run MET.

METVIEWER 3.1 is also available via the METplus Downloads Page and as a Docker Container via GitHub.

• Major Enhancements: Support for MET 9.1 output and an optional alpha-release of Python support for aggregation, event equalization, pairwise differencing, and computing confidence intervals.  Two plot templates, Performance and ROC diagrams, are also available in Python.  The use of Python can be toggled through the “Common” tab in the lower right portion of the user interface.
• Current Plot Templates: Time-Series, Bar, Box, ROC, Reliability, Spread-Skill, Performance and Taylor Diagrams, Rank, PIT, and Relative Position Diagrams, Economic Cost-Loss Diagram, Contour Diagram.
• Full details can be found in the release notes.
• For METviewer 3.1, please refer to the METplus 3.0 Online Tutorial covers much of the functionality of this release, including examples of how to run METviewer. 

SUPPORT FOR US-BASED HPCS

Over the next week, METplus 3.1 and MET 9.1 will be installed on several US-based high performance computing platforms (e.g. Cheyenne, Jet, Hera, WCOSS, and Stampede) to make it more accessible to both the research and operations community.  Please see the list of existing builds.  METviewer is intended to be installed on your local server.

The Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) is pleased to announce the release of the Unified Post Processor Version 4.1.  While many of the functionalities and supported features remain the same as previous versions, there are significant modifications that support a larger goal to further align the community distributed code with National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operations. The changes to the UPP in the current release reflect this effort and can be viewed as a transitional phase as work continues toward this goal.  Please review the updates carefully.  

There are important changes to the directory structure, build procedures and software dependencies.  The motivation for these changes is to further align the community software with operational software, including alignment of the repository structures, to help facilitate code management procedures. 

Directory Structure and Build Dependency Changes include:

• Removal of several supporting NCEP libraries from the UPP package and making them a pre-install library dependency
• Removal of copygb code to its own individual repository to be installed and used as a separate utility (https://github.com/NCAR/copygb)
• Reorganization of the directory tree to align with EMC code
• New dependencies required to be pre-installed prior to building UPP code
  • NCAR/NCEPlibs (https://github.com/NCAR/NCEPlibs)
    • Note that this repository is separate from the authoritative NOAA NCEPLibs repositories; it is maintained by DTC staff and may have minor code changes from that of NOAA maintained libraries.  This is necessary to ensure continued support for current features. Work is underway to transition to the authoritative NOAA repository in effort to remove this redundancy.

Please carefully read the new procedures on the UPP Users webpage or in the V4.1 Users’ Guide for building the software. 

In addition to these code infrastructure changes, there are a number of functional improvements to the UPP as well. 

Major Improvements and New Features include:

• GOES 16 products
• Fields related to HRRR-smoke (e.g. smoke tracers, visibility, etc.)
• FV3GFS model data in netcdf format
• Code access via GitHub repository 

Additional release notes:

• Serial builds are no longer supported.
• This will be the last supported version for WRF model data.
• This will be the last supported version of GRIB1 output format.

Download Information:
The preferred method for obtaining the code is to clone the release from GitHub.  Please visit the download page for links and more release information: https://dtcenter.org/community-code/unified-post-processor-upp/download.

Users can sign up for updates regarding the UPP software package at: https://dtcenter.org/community-code/unified-post-processor-upp/subscribe

We would like to thank contributors from NCEP, the DTC, and from the user community who have contributed to this release. This release is the result of the joint efforts of NOAA/NCEP and DTC through the support of NOAA and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Please send questions or comments related to the UPP software package to: upp-help@ucar.edu.
Stay tuned for future announcements regarding the UPP software.  

~ The UPP Team ~

The Developmental Testbed Center is pleased to announce the Common Community Physics Package (CCPP) v4.0.0 public release on March 16, 2020. The CCPP contains a library of physical parameterizations (CCPP-Physics), and the framework that connects it to host models (CCPP-Framework). This release also includes the CCPP Single Column Model (SCM) v4.0.0. 

Five experimental cases are available for use with the CCPP SCM: BOMEX maritime shallow convection, LASSO continental shallow convection, ASTEX stratocumulus-to-cumulus transition, ARM SGP Summer 1997 continental deep convection, and TWP-ICE maritime deep convection.

The CCPP-Physics is envisioned to contain parameterizations used in the NOAA Unified Forecast System (UFS) for weather through seasonal prediction timescales, as well as developmental schemes under consideration for upcoming operational implementations. This release contains suite GFS_v15p2, which is an updated version of the operational GFS v15 implemented on June 12, 2019; it replaces suite GFS_v15. Three developmental suites are included in this release: csawmg has minor updates, GSD_v1 is an update over the previously released GSD_v0, and GFS_v16beta is the target suite for implementation in the upcoming operational GFSv16 (it replaces suite GFSv15plus). Additionally, there are two new suites, GFS_v15p2_no_nsst and GFS_v16beta_no_nsst,  which are variants that treat the sea surface temperature more simply. The CCPP Scientific Documentation describes the suites and their parameterizations in detail.

There are some important changes in the CCPP-Framework in this release. The format of the metadata used to communicate variables between the physics and the host model has changed to accomodate more information and be more extensible. To better meet the needs of the various host models using CCPP, the dynamic build option has been discontinued in favor of the static option with the potential for multiple suites to be defined at compile-time. Finally, the capability to automatically convert units of selected variables, when physics and host use different units, has been added.

Major changes in the SCM include the ability to use CCPP v4.0.0, support added for NOAA’s Hera HPC platform and Docker containers, and inclusion of the static build. Minor changes are the use of CMake for integration with CCPP and adoption of the new CCPP metadata format. There has also been a name change. This code is now known as the CCPP SCM instead of the GMTB SCM, although filenames in the code have not been changed yet.

Not all suites are supported for use with all hosts. The DTC provides support for four suites for use with the UFS (GFS_v15p2, GFS_v15p2_no_nsst, GFS_v16beta, GFS_v16beta_no_nsst) and six suites for use with the CCPP SCM (GFS_v15p2, GFS_v15p2_no_nsst, GFS_v16beta, GFS_v16beta_no_nsst, csawmg, and GSD_v1). For access to the SCM and CCPP code and documentation, please visit the CCPP website at https://dtcenter.org/community-code/common-community-physics-package-ccpp, where you will find a Users’ Guide, a list of known issues, frequently-asked questions, technical documentation, and scientific documentation. For information about the UFS, including its use with CCPP, please visit https://ufscommunity.org/. 

For questions or comments about the CCPP and the SCM, please contact our helpdesk at gmtb-help@ucar.edu. When using CCPP with the UFS, you can also direct your questions to the UFS community forum.

Grant Firl, Dom Heinzeller, Laurie Carson, and Ligia Bernardet on behalf of the DTC team

Known Issues and Fixes

1. This release cannot be used with the PGI compiler. There are no plans to address this.

    

The Model Evaluation Tools (MET) development team at the DTC is pleased to announce the release of a multi-component verification capability called METplus.  It includes METplus version 3.0, MET version 9.0 and METviewer version 3.0. METplus contains a suite of Python wrappers and ancillary scripts to enhance the user's ability to quickly set-up and run MET.  METviewer is a database and display system for aggregating and plotting MET output.  Users can now check everything out and build through the METplus GitHub repository.  

METplus 3.0 May Be Obtained on GitHub.

• Major Enhancements: Integrated build system that downloads METplus wrappers and MET (including dependencies) by running the build_MET.sh script. Transition from Python 2 to 3. Reorganization of use-cases into met_tool_wrappers and model_applications (see below). Support for MET Python Embedding. Numerous enhancements to allow for more customization and integration into workflows.
• Current supported use cases and examples:
  • Simple examples of running met_tool_wrappers: ASCII2NC, CyclonePlotter, EnsembleStat, GridStat, MODE, MTD, PB2NC, PCPCombine, PointStat, RegridDataPlane, SeriesAnalysis, StatAnalysis, TCMPRPlotter, TCPairs, TCStat
  • More complex examples relevant to model_applications: Convection Allowing Models, Ensemble, Marine and Cryosphere, Medium Range, Precipitation, Space Weather, Subseasonal to Seasonal, Tropical Cyclone and Extra-Tropical Cyclone
• Full details can be found in the release notes.
• METplus 3.0 Online Tutorial will be released and announced soon.

MET 9.0 Is Available For Download From The MET Users Web Page Or As A Docker Container via Docker Hub.

• Major Enhancements: Python Embedding: Transition from Python 2 to 3, Added to ASCII2NC, Stat-Analysis, Ensemble-Stat, Series-Analysis, and MTD, Handles user's Python environment. New Tools: Grid-Diag, Point2Grid, TC-Gen, TC-RMW, RMW-Analysis. Other: Binned climatologies and new Ranked Probability Score (RPS) and Distance Map (DMAP) line types. Fortify: Compliance with zero high risk findings.
• Full details can be found in the release notes.
• For MET 9.0, please refer to the MET 8.0 Online Tutorial for help getting started.  MET Online Tutorials will be embedded in METplus tutorials in the future.

METviewer 3.0 May Be Obtained On GitHub And Is Available As A Docker Container Via GitHub.

• Major Enhancements: Support for MET 9.0 output and new date picker. Support to produce the aggregated NBRCTS statistics in the scorecard.
• Current Plot Templates: Time-Series, Bar, Box, ROC, Reliability, Spread-Skill, Performance and Taylor Diagrams, Rank, PIT, and Relative Position Diagrams, Economic Cost-Loss Diagram, Contour Diagram 
• Full details can be found in the release notes.

Support For US-Based HPCS

Over the next week, METplus 3.0 and MET 9.0 will be installed on several US-based high performance computing platforms (e.g. Cheyenne, Jet, Hera, WCOSS, and Stampede) to make it more accessible to both the research and operations community.  Please see the list of existing builds.  METviewer is intended to be installed on your local server.

Dear UPP Community,

The Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) is pleased to announce the release of the Unified Post Processor Bug Fix Version 4.0.1.

Significant bug fixes include:

• FV3GFS processing fix:
  • Modified input format for processing FV3GFS data.
  • Users should use UPPV4.0.1 for all FV3GFS processing. Previous versions are now considered legacy for FV3GFS.
  • Users should use 'binarynemsiompiio' instead of 'binarynemsio' in their run script. The binarynemsio format option will not be supported in the future.
    • Scripts in this release have been modified accordingly.

  • FV3GFS Users should upgrade their workflow to use this release UPPV4.0.1.

• Update logic for selecting a subset of channels from a satellite sensor in CALRAD_WCLOUD_newcrtm.f.

Miscellaneous bug fixes include: 

• Fix typo in wind energy calculation (UPP ID 411) in MDL2AGL.f
• Fix for TAUX/TAUY calculation in CALTAU.f
• Fix pname for updraft helicity in post_avblflds.xml
• Fix incorrect grib codes in RQSTFLD.f for wind shear fields
• Fix allocation issue for PSFC in SURFCE.f
• Fix typo for correct iget ID for INSAT 3D in CALRAD_WCLOUD_newcrtm.f
• Remove 10 m POT/SPFH for wrf control files - fields not available for WRF

To download this version of the code or to view details about this release including a list of updates, modifications and bug fixes, please visit: https://dtcenter.org/community-code/unified-post-processor-upp/upp-user-release-version-4-0-1.

Users can sign up for updates regarding the UPP software package at: https://dtcenter.org/community-code/unified-post-processor-upp/subscribe. We would like to thank contributors from NCEP, the DTC, and from the user community who have contributed to this release.

Please send questions or comments related to the UPP software package to: upp-help@ucar.edu.

This release is the result of the joint efforts of NOAA/NCEP and DTC through the support of NOAA and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Best Regards,

The UPP Team

Bugfix releases for both METplus version 2.1 and MET version 8.1 are now available.

METPLUS 2.1.1 MAY BE OBTAINED ON GITHUB. 

MET 8.1.1 IS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD FROM THE MET USERS WEB PAGE.

The Common Community Physics Package (CCPP) v3.0 was publicly released in June 2019. The CCPP contains a library of physical parameterizations (CCPP-Physics), and the framework that connects it to host models (CCPP-Framework). In this release, the CCPP has been bundled with the Global Model Test bed (GMTB) Single Column Model (SCM) v3.0.  

The CCPP-Physics is envisioned to contain parameterizations used by NOAA operational models for weather through seasonal prediction timescales, as well as developmental schemes under consideration for upcoming operational implementations. This version contains all parameterizations of the current operational GFS v15 (implemented on June 12, 2019), plus additional developmental schemes. The schemes are grouped in four supported suites described in detail in the CCPP Scientific Documentation (GFS_v15, GFS_v15plus, csawmg, and GSD_v0). The Zhao-Carr microphysics and the GFS_v14 suite are no longer supported.

Five experimental cases are available for use with the GMTB SCM: BOMEX maritime shallow convection, LASSO continental shallow convection, ASTEX stratocumulus-to-cumulus transition, ARM SGP Summer 1997 continental deep convection, and TWP-ICE maritime deep convection.

For access to the code and data, please visit the CCPP website at https://dtcenter.org/community-code/common-community-physics-package-ccpp, where you will find a Users’ Guide, a list of known issues, frequently-asked questions, Technical Documentation, and Scientific Documentation.

For questions or comments about the CCPP, the SCM, and other Global Model Test Bed activities, please contact us at GMTB Help.

The Model Evaluation Tools (MET) development team at the DTC is pleased to announce the release of a multi-component verification capability called METplus.  It includes METplus version 2.1, MET version 8.1 and METviewer version 2.10. METplus contains a suite of Python wrappers and ancillary scripts to enhance the user's ability to quickly set-up and run MET.  METviewer is a database and display system for aggregating and plotting MET output.  In the future, a user will be able to check everything out through the METplus GitHub repository.  Until then, the components will need to be downloaded separately.

METPLUS 2.1 MAY BE OBTAINED ON GITHUB. 

• Major Enhancements: Renaming of many config variables so they are more clear, enhanced error checking of config options, improved logging, automatic setting of default values in the final conf file, and the ability to define run times relative to current clock time ("now").
• Current supported use cases and examples: Cyclone Plotter, Ensembles, Feature Relative, Grid-to-Grid, Grid-to-Obs, HMT Testbed, HWT Testbed, MODE, QPF, Track_and_Intensity, and Plotting

MET 8.1 IS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD FROM THE MET USERS WEB PAGE AND AS A DOCKER CONTAINER VIA DOCKERHUB.

• Major Enhancements: Fortify compliance, percentile thresholds, land/sea mask and topography in Point-Stat, the derive option in PCP-Combine, and Gaussian interpolation
• Full details can be found in the release notes.
• For MET 8.1, please refer to the MET 8.0 Online Tutorial for help getting started.

METVIEWER 2.10 MAY BE OBTAINED ON GITHUB AND IS AVAILABLE AS A DOCKER CONTAINER VIA GITHUB.

• Major Enhancements: Support for MET 8.1 output
• Current Plot Templates: Time Series, Box Plot, Bar Plot, Receiver Operator Curve (ROC), Reliability Diagram, Binned Ensemble Spread-Skill, Performance Diagram, Taylor Diagram, Histogram, Economic Cost-Loss Value, 2D Contour Plots of statistics, and Scorecard.
• Full details can be found in the release notes.

SUPPORT FOR US-BASED HPCS

Over the next week, METplus 2.1 and MET 8.1 will be installed on several US-based high performance computing platforms (e.g. Cheyenne, Jet, Theia and WCOSS) to make it more accessible to both the research and operations community.  Please see the list of existing builds.  METviewer is intended to be installed on your local server.

Dear UPP Community,

The Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) is pleased to announce the release of the Unified Post Processor Version 4.0.

The UPP has a new webpage! Please update your bookmarks.

https://dtcenter.org/community-code/unified-post-processor-upp

Major Improvements and New Features include:

• Support for FV3GFS model output in NEMSIO format
  • Updated User Guide documentation to include information on post-processing the FV3GFS model output.
  • New output control files to produce fields from FV3GFS model output.
  • Logic to the run_unipost, run_unipostandgrads, and run_unipostandgempak scripts for reading and processing FV3GFS model output in NEMSIO format.
  • For more information about the FV3GFS model status and availability:
    https://www.weather.gov/sti/stimodeling_nggps_implementation#secondbluebox
    https://vlab.ncep.noaa.gov/web/fv3gfs

• Removal of build dependency on the WRF code package
  • There is no longer a requirement to build WRF prior to building UPP; therefore, you’ll no longer receive a prompt for the location of a WRF build when compiling the UPP.
• Upgrade of the Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) to V2.2.3
  • Users should expect UPP synthetic satellite product results to change slightly due to minor changes in source code and coefficient files.
• Deprecated support for WRF-NMM binary model output and NEMS-NMMB model output
  • The routines for reading these model outputs have been removed and/or are no longer maintained.
     

Additional release notes:

• Continued support for processing WRF-ARW model output in NetCDF format.
• Bug fixes applied as necessary.
• Documentation updated (including the UPP users website, online tutorial and Users Guide).
• The release has been synced with the operational UPP version v8.0.0 at NCEP.
• A Docker container has been made available with limited functionality.

To download this version of the code or to view details about this release including a list of updates, modifications and bug fixes, please visit: https://dtcenter.org/community-code/unified-post-processor-upp/upp-user-release-version-4-0.

Users can sign up for updates regarding the UPP software package at: https://dtcenter.org/community-code/unified-post-processor-upp/subscribe.

We would like to thank contributors from NCEP, the DTC, and from the user community who have contributed to this release.

Please send questions or comments related to the UPP software package to: upp-help@ucar.edu.

This release is the result of the joint efforts of NOAA/NCEP and DTC through the support of NOAA and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Best Regards,

The UPP Team

The Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) is pleased to announce the release of the 2018 Community Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) Version 3.7 and Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) version 1.3 data assimilation system. This release includes the latest code as of October 30th of 2018, new compiling system, and updated run scripts with updated User's Guide and on-line tutorials. 

Some of the major upgrades for this release include: 

• Unified CMake based build system.
• WRF I/O interface now included as a library. No need to build WRF before compiling GSI/EnKF.
• All community running scripts, namelists are now located under the ./ush directory. Previous ./dtc directory is removed.
• Updated CRTM library and coefficients to version 2.3.0
• Added capability to read NEMSIO ensemble files in parallel
• A GSI docker container is available for community users to get hands-on experiences on building/running GSI/EnKF.  

Users may go to  GSI User's Page and EnKF User's Page  to download the release package, documentation, and practical cases. Questions and inquiries can be addressed through the GSI Helpdesk and EnKF Helpdesk.

GSI and EnKF are community data assimilation systems, open to contributions from both the operational and research communities. Please contact the helpdesk for access to the development code repository and check code contributions page  for the code transition procedures. Potential financial support to prospective contributors for code transitioning is also available through the DTC visitor program.

The DTC Hurricane team is pleased to announce the release of version 4.0a of the community HWRF modeling system. The release includes all components of the system: scripts, data preprocessing, vortex initialization, data assimilation, atmospheric and ocean models, coupler, postprocessor, and vortex tracker. Both the Scientific Documentation and the Users Guide have been updated.

Users may go to http://www.dtcenter.org/HurrWRF/users to download codes, acquire datasets, and get information and documentation about HWRF.

The upgrades in version 4.0a are listed below:

• Compatible with the 2018 operational HWRF.
• WRF upgraded to v4.0, updated GSI
• Horizontal resolution increased from 18/6/2 km to 13.5/4.5/1.5 km
• D02 and D03 domain size decreased to ~ 17.8 x 17.8 degrees and ~ 5.9 x 5.9 degrees, respectively.
• Number of vertical levels increased to 75 with a model top of 10 hPa for all ocean basins.
• Miscellaneous upgrades and bug fixes in various physical parameterizations.
  • New cloud overlap method in RRTMG radiation parameterization.
  • Updated horizontal diffusion and convergence damping coefficients.
• Ocean upgrades
  • New POM domain for the north Central Pacific basin
• Initialization upgrades
  • Dropsonde drifting is considered when assimilation is done
  • Assimilating new data sets with GSI (GOES-16 AMV, NOAA-20, SFMR, TDR from G-IV)
• Addition of precipitation rate (PRATE) variable in GRIB2 files

For questions and inquires, contact hwrf-help@ucar.edu.

The DTC would like to encourage prospective contributors to apply to the DTC visitor program for transitioning research to the operational HWRF system. Proposals are accepted year-around. Please check the visitor program webpage (https://www.dtcenter.org/visitors/) for the latest announcement of opportunity and application procedure.

The Model Evaluation Tools (MET) development team at the DTC is pleased to announce the release of a multi-component verification capability called METplus.  It includes METplus version 2.0, MET version 8.0 and METviewer version 2.8. METplus is a suite of Python wrappers and ancillary scripts to enhance the user's ability to quickly set-up and run MET.  METviewer is a database and display system for aggregating and plotting MET output.  In the future, a user will be able to check everything out through the METplus GitHub repository.  Until then, the components will need to be downloaded separately.

METplus 2.0 may be obtained on GitHub. 

• A User’s Guide and Sample Data are also available on the release page. 
• Major Enhancements: Standardization of .conf file setting. 
• Current supported use cases and examples: Cyclone Plotter, Feature Relative, Grid-to-Grid, Grid-to-Obs, QPF, and Track_and_Intensity

MET 8.0 is available for download from the MET Users web page and available in a Docker container with set-up instructions in README.docker.txt

• A User’s Guide and Sample data are available online. 
• Major Enhancements: Python embedding, observation error logic, shapefiles for masking regions, point observation format overhaul, and rotated lat/lon projections
• New Tools: Three new utilities to dump shapefile information (gis_dump_dbf, gis_dump_shp, and gis_dump_shx)
• Full details on the changes for this new version are detailed in the release notes.
• The  DTC staff is working on updating the MET online tutorial.  For now, please refer to the METv6.1 Online Tutorial for help with getting started.

METviewer 2.8 may be obtained on GitHub and available in a Docker container with set-up instructions in README.docker.txt

• Documentation may be found online.
• Major Enhancements: Support for MET 8.0 output
• Current Plot Templates: Time Series, Box Plot, Bar Plot, Receiver Operator Curve (ROC), Reliability Diagram, Binned Ensemble Spread-Skill, Performance Diagram, Taylor Diagram, Histogram, Economic Cost-Loss Value, 2D Contour Plots of statistics, and Scorecard.
• Full details on the changes for this new version are detailed in the release notes.

Support for US-based HPCs

Over the next week, METplus 2.0 and MET 8.0 will be installed on several US-based high performance computing platforms (e.g. Cheyenne, Jet, Theia and WCOSS) to make it more accessible to both the research and operations community.  METviewer is intended to be installed on your local server.  Information about the paths, modules to load, and the LD_LIBRARY_PATH needed to run these installs are available online. You can just symbolically link to the bin directory and copy over the necessary config files to your working directory.

The DTC’s Global Model Test Bed (GMTB) is pleased to announce the public release of the Common Community Physics Package (CCPP) v2.0, containing a library of physical parameterizations (CCPP-Physics), and the framework that connects it to host models (CCPP-Framework). In this release, the CCPP has been bundled with the GMTB Single Column Model (SCM) v2.1, and contains updated physical parameterizations of the GFS suite plus the GFDL microphysics scheme.

The CCPP has also been integrated with the experimental version of NCEPs’ Global Forecast System (GFS) that employs the Finite-Volume in the Cubed-Sphere dynamical core (FV3). This capability is under review and is not supported as part of the public release. Interested developers should contact GMTB for access.

For more information, and to learn how to download, build, run, and contribute to the code, please visit the CCPP release page at https://dtcenter.org/gmtb/users/ccpp. Questions and comments can be directed to gmtb-help@ucar.edu.
 

The DTC’s HWRF team is pleased to announce the public release of the Community standalone GFDL Vortex Tracker code version 3.9a. The standalone tracker can be used to determine properties (location, intensity, structure etc) of forecast tropical cyclones of any numerical model, as long as selected variables are provided in GRIB or NetCDF format in a lat/lon grid. This version is in line with the 2017 operational implementation of HWRF. This code also has also been upgraded for cyclone genesis tracking.

Code downloads, test datasets, and a users' guide can be obtained from http://www.dtcenter.org/HurrWRF/users/downloads/index.tracker.php. Please refer to Known Issues and Fixes if you encounter any issues.

Questions and comments can be directed to hwrf-help@ucar.edu.

The DTC’s Global Model Test Bed (GMTB) is pleased to announce the public release of the Common Community Physics Package (CCPP), a library of physical parameterizations for atmospheric numerical models. It is distributed with a framework that enables its use with any host application for which an interface is written. In this release, the CCPP has been bundled with the GMTB Single Column Model (SCM) and contains all the physical parameterizations used in the current operational NOAA Global Forecast System (GFS).

For more information, and to learn how to download, build, run, and contribute to the code, please visit the CCPP release page at https://dtcenter.org/gmtb/users/ccpp/. Questions and comments can be directed to gmtb-help@ucar.edu.

The MET development team at the DTC is pleased to announce the release of the MET version 6.1 verification package. It is available for download from the MET Users web page. The MET development team significantly enhanced the run-time performance of a number of tools, enhanced the data and file format capabilities, and added new capabilities for point observations, gridded analyses and tropical cyclone and probabilistic verification. Full details about the changes for this new version can be found in the release notes.

Executables for MET v6.1 are available on several high performance computing platforms (Yellowstone, Jet, Theia and WCOSS).  Paths, modules to load and the paths needed for these installs can be found at the bottom of the MET downloads page.  You simply need to symbolically link to the bin directory and copy the necessary config files to your working directory to use the available executables.

We hope that MET v6.1 enhances your model verification efforts. Please send any comments or questions to met_help@ucar.edu.

The Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) is pleased to announce the release of version 3.9a of the community HWRF modeling system. The release includes all components of the system: scripts, data preprocessing, vortex initialization, data assimilation, atmospheric and ocean models, coupler, postprocessor, and vortex tracker. Both the Scientific Documentation and the Users Guide have been updated.

Users may go to http://www.dtcenter.org/HurrWRF/users to download codes, acquire datasets, and get information and documentation about HWRF.

The upgrades in version 3.9a are listed below:

• Compatible with the 2017 operational HWRF.

• WRF upgraded to v3.9.1 and GSI to v3.6.

• D02 and D03 domain size decreased to ~ 24x24 degrees and ~ 7x7 degrees respectively.

• Number of vertical levels increased to 75 with a model top of 10 hPa for the AL, EP, and CP basins and to 61 with a model top of 10 hPa for the WP basin and NIO.

• Miscellaneous upgrades and bug fixes in various physical parameterizations.

  • Updated Scale Aware Simplified Arakawa Shubert scheme for cumulus parameterization.

  • Updated GFS Hybrid-Eddy Diffusivity Mass Flux PBL scheme.

  • Updated Ferrier-Aligo microphysics scheme.

  • Updated momentum and enthalpy exchange coefficients (Cd/Ch) in surface layer parameterization.

  • Updated partial cloudiness scheme for RRTMG.

• Ocean upgrades

  • Reduced coupling time step from 9 min to 6 min for ocean coupling.

  • Increased vortex tracking frequency.

  • Number of vertical levels in MPIPOM-TC increased from 24 to 41.

• Initialization upgrades

  • Use of a new composite storm vortex for improved vortex initialization.

  • Assimilating new data sets with GSI (hourly Atmospheric Motion Vectors /AMV/, clear-water-vapor AMV's).

• New version of GFDL vortex tracker

For questions and inquires, contact hwrf-help@ucar.edu.

The DTC would like to encourage prospective contributors to apply to the DTC visitor program for transitioning research to the operational HWRF system. Proposals are accepted year-around. Please check the visitor program webpage (https://www.dtcenter.org/visitors/) for the latest announcement of opportunity and application procedure.

The MET development team at the DTC is pleased to announce the release of the MET version 6.0 verification package. It is available for download from the MET Users web page. The MET development team significantly enhanced the run-time performance of a number of tools, enhanced the data and file format capabilities, and added new capabilities for point observations, gridded analyses and tropical cyclone and probabilistic verification. Full details about the changes for this new version can be found in the release notes.

Executables for MET v6.0 are available on several high performance computing platforms (Yellowstone, Jet, Theia and WCOSS).  Paths, modules to load and the paths needed for these installs can be found at the bottom of the MET downloads page.  You simply need to symbolically link to the bin directory and copy the necessary config files to your working directory to use the available executables.

We hope that MET v6.0 enhances your model verification efforts. Please send any comments or questions to met_help@ucar.edu.

The Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) is pleased to announce the release of the following community data assimilation systems:

Version 3.6 of the Community Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) data assimilation system
Version 1.2 of the Community Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) data assimilation system

The released packages for GSI and EnKF and the documentation for each can be accessed through each system website as follows:

GSI user’s page
EnKF user’s page: 

Please send questions and inquiries to the help desk emails: gsi-help@ucar.edu and enkf-help@ucar.edu.

GSI and EnKF are community data assimilation systems, open to contributions from both the operational and research communities. Please contact the helpdesk for assistance on gaining access to the development code repository and learning about code commit procedures.

Prospective contributors can also apply to the DTC visitor program for their data assimilation research and code transition. The visitor program is open to applications year-round. Please check the visitor program webpage (https://www.dtcenter.org/visitors/) for the latest announcement of opportunity and application procedures.

The DTC is a distributed facility, with a goal of bridging the research and operational communities. This code release is sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). NCAR is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF).