Release Date: December 19, 2024
The DTC is pleased to announce the coordinated release of the enhanced Model Evaluation Tools (METplus), a comprehensive, multi-component verification framework! METplus features a suite of Python wrappers and ancillary scripts designed to streamline the setup and execution of MET. Additionally, METplus includes an analysis suite with user-friendly interfaces, METviewer and METexpress, supported by shared packages such as METdataio, METcalcpy, and METplotpy that facilitate loading, storing, aggregating, and plotting MET output for analysis. This coordinated release, under development since August 2023, includes:
- METplus version 6.0.0 – Release Notes
- MET version 12.0.0 – Release Notes
METplus Analysis Suite, comprised of:
- METviewer version 6.0.0 – Release Notes
- METexpress version 6.0.0 – Release Notes
- METdataio 3.0.0 – Release Notes
- METcalcpy 3.0.0 – Release Notes
- METplotpy 3.0.0 – Release Notes
Please visit the DTC website to find additional links to code, online tutorials, video training, documentation, and GitHub discussion support for all components of METplus.
Key Enhancements and New Features
MET/METplus/METplus Analysis Tools Updates:
- Support for unstructured grid (UGRID) NetCDF Files: MET now supports NetCDF files following the UGRID conventions; Proj is now a required dependency and Atlas/ecKit are optional with UGRID inputs
- Separate Climatology Datasets: MET has been enhanced to support the use of distinct climatology datasets for forecast and observation inputs
- Weighted Contingency Tables: New functionality allows MET to calculate weighted contingency table counts and associated statistics
- New METplus Wrappers:
- MADIS2NC
- Wavelet-Stat
- New Use Cases:
- Verification with scatterometer wind data
- Total column ozone verification with NASA OMI data
- Verification with satellite altimetry data
- Verification and plotting of RRFS ensemble data
- Calculation and plotting of QBO
- Grid-to-grid fire weather verification
- Multivariate MODE verification of RRFS with radar and lightning observations
- Deprecated Environment Variables in METplus Wrappers: Support for deprecated environment variables related to old wrapped MET configuration files has been removed
- Command-Line Plotting Enhancements: Significant improvements have been made in command-line plotting, including support for tropical cyclone diagnostics
- Apptainer Support: METplus can now be run via Apptainer on platforms such as NSF NCAR HPC (i.e., Derecho and Casper)
- Improved Cybersecurity Support: Significant improvements have been made within the METplus code to address SonarQube and STIG findings
- NOTE! Please pay close attention to changes in configuration file updates and output line type modifications to ensure compatibility with your workflows; users are encouraged to review the MET Version 12.0.0 Upgrade Instructions for more detailed information
- Kudos: Special thanks to John Sharples from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) for contributions to improving test coverage of METplus components
Support for US-based HPCs
Over the next several weeks, METplus 6.0.0 and all components will be installed on several US-based HPC (e.g., NSF NCAR Casper, NOAA Jet, NOAA Hera, NOAA WCOSS2, and TACC Stampede) to make it more accessible to both the research and operational communities. Please see the list of existing builds for more information. NOTE: METviewer and METexpress are intended to be installed on your local server.
Citations
You may use our Zenodo DOIs when citing the entire METplus system, or MET (if that is the only system used):
METplus: https://zenodo.org/records/10975507
