MET Version 5.0

All Recommended Updates (Last Updated 09/18/2015)

Retrieve all of the recommended updates for METv5.0 in a tarfile:

• Download the tarfile met-5.0_patches_20150918.tar.gz
• Copy it into the top-level met-5.0 directory.
• Uncompress and untar the file. Please note that the new version of the files in the tarball will overwrite the original version of those files. Any changes you may have made will be lost.
• Rebuild MET, being sure to run make clean and configure first.

Summary of Recommended Updates

• 09/18/2015: Fix Ensemble-Stat segmentation fault for GRIB2 probability fields.
• 02/05/2015: Parsing lat/lon grid definition from CF-compliant NetCDF files that cross the international date line.
• 01/26/2015: Update logic when filtering GRIB2 records.
• 01/26/2015: Update logic when filtering GRIB1 records.
• 01/26/2015: Rename rank functions due to name conflicts.
• 01/15/2015: Update logic when checking for numeric equality.
• 11/13/2014: Fix TC-Stat bug for -init_str filtering option.
• 11/13/2014: Fix TC-Pairs bug when defining a consensus track that straddles the international date line.
• 10/15/2014: Check for integer overflow when writing unixtime to NetCDF output.
• 10/14/2014: Fix Grid-Stat segmentation fault for nc_pairs_flag.
• 10/14/2014: Fix Makefiles for vx_config and vx_color libraries.
• 10/14/2014: Enhance logic for parsing timing information and lat/lon grid definition from CF-compliant NetCDF files.
• 10/14/2014: Fix parsing of timing information from GRIB2 table 4.48.
• 10/14/2014: Distribute default configuration file for the Plot-MODE-Field tool.
• 10/14/2014: Update top-level README file.

Details

Fix Ensemble-Stat segmentation fault forg GRIB2 probability fields.
Posted 09/18/2015

Problem: Ensemble-Stat errors out when writing the output NetCDF ensemble summary file for GRIB2 probability fields. The segmentation fault happens when trying to write the "units" NetCDF variable attribute which is empty.
Solution: The fix is to use the probability units for the NetCDF variable attribute.
Update: met-5.0/src/libcode/vx_data2d_grib2/var_info_grib2.cc

Parsing lat/lon grid definition from CF-compliant NetCDF files that cross the international date line.
Posted 02/05/2015

Problem: MET errors out when reading longitude values from gridded CF-compliant NetCDF files that cross the international date line:
ERROR: NcCfFile::get_grid_from_dimensions() -> MET can only process Latitude/Longitude files where the lon delta is constant
Solution: Update the logic when checking for equally spaced longitude values to handle the international date line. 
Update: met-5.0/src/libcode/vx_data2d_nccf/nccf_file.cc

Update logic when filtering GRIB2 records.
Posted 01/26/2015

Problem: Maximum Updraft Helicity (MXUPHL) is stored as an accumulation between 2000 and 5000 meters in GRIB2 files. However, MET can only handle accumulation intervals stored as time strings in HHMMSS format. MET is unable to extract that field from GRIB2 files.
Solution: The work-around is to specify MXUPHL using a generic level type, such as "L5000-2000". Update the GRIB2 filtering logic to explicitly check for generic level type matching prior to matching accumulation intervals.
Update: met-5.0/src/libcode/vx_data2d_grib2/data2d_grib2.cc

Update logic when filtering GRIB1 records.
Posted 01/26/2015

Problem: Earlier versions of MET were checking that the GRIB record parameter table version number matched the one requested in the configuration file. Prior to METv3.1, that check was commented out. All GRIB records matching the requested GRIB code were selected regardless of their parameter table version number.
Solution: The fix is to uncomment that check.
Update: met-5.0/src/libcode/vx_data2d_grib/data2d_grib_utils.cc

Rename rank functions due to name conflicts.
Posted 01/26/2015

Problem: A MET user reported compilation problems on Mac using Intel version 14 compilers due to name conflicts for the functions named "rank".
Solution: The fix is to rename two functions in the MET libraries named "rank".
Update: met-5.0/src/basic/vx_math/ptile.h
Update: met-5.0/src/basic/vx_math/ptile.cc
Update: met-5.0/src/basic/vx_util/num_array.cc
Update: met-5.0/src/libcode/vx_statistics/met_stats.cc
Update: met-5.0/src/tools/other/modis_regrid/cloudsat_swath_file.h
Update: met-5.0/src/tools/other/modis_regrid/modis_file.cc

Update logic when checking for numeric equality.
Posted 01/15/2015

Problem: A user reported problems with MET when checking for the equality of two numbers on their system. This revealed incorrect calls to the "abs" function rather than "fabs" when computing the absolute value of floating point numbers.
Solution: Simplify the logic of the library routine that checks for the numeric equality and switch "abs" to "fabs" in a handful of places in the MET code tree.
Update: met-5.0/src/basic/vx_math/is_bad_data.h
Update: met-5.0/src/libcode/vx_analysis_util/mask_poly.cc
Update: met-5.0/src/libcode/vx_nc_util/write_netcdf.cc
Update: met-5.0/src/libcode/vx_statistics/met_stats.cc
Update: met-5.0/src/tools/core/point_stat/point_stat.cc
Update: met-5.0/src/tools/core/stat_analysis/aggr_stat_line.cc

Fix TC-Stat bug for -init_str option.
Posted 11/14/2014

Problem: Using the -init_str option in the TC-Stat tool on track data containing no 0-hour forecast track point results in a segmentation fault.
Solution: Fix the logic to check for a bad initial track point before applying the initialization string filtering criteria.
Update: met-5.0/src/tools/tc_utils/tc_stat/tc_stat_job.cc

Fix TC-Pairs bug when defining a consensus track that straddles the international date line.
Posted 11/13/2014

Problem: The TC-Pairs tool was computing the track consensus location as a simple arithmetic mean of the latitude and longitudes of the members. When the longitudes of the members straddle the international date line, this method produces incorrect results.
Solution: Check the range of the member longitudes. If the range exceeds 180 degress assume that the international date line is being crossed. Add 360 to any longitude values less than 0 before computing the arithmetic mean. Rescale the average longitude back to the range of -180 to 180.
Update: met-5.0/src/libcode/vx_tc_util/track_info.cc

Check for integer overflow when writing unixtime to NetCDF output.
Posted 10/15/2014

Problem: Attempting to write very large values of unixtime (+/- 2147483647) as NetCDF variable attributes results in integer overflow and a runtime error:
NetCDF: Numeric conversion not representable
Solution: Check for integer overflow prior to writing unixtime to NetCDF files and print a warning message.
This fix was updated on 10/15/2014 to remove references to NC_MAX_INT which is defined in NetCDF4 but not in NetCDF3.
Update: met-5.0/src/libcode/vx_nc_util/write_netcdf.cc

Fix Grid-Stat segmentation fault for nc_pairs_flag.
Posted 10/14/2014

Problem: Setting the latlon, raw, and diff options in the nc_pairs_flag section of the Grid-Stat configuration file to different values causes a segmetation fault due to memory not being properly allocated.
Solution: The fix is to properly allocate memory prior to accessing the array elements.
Update: met-5.0/src/tools/core/grid_stat/grid_stat.cc

Fix Makefiles for vx_config and vx_color libraries.
Posted 10/14/2014

Problem: Executing "make clean" removes the file color_scanner.cc from the vx_color library. Subsequent calls to "make" result in calling flex to regenerate this file. The distributed code should cause no calls to flex.
Solution: The fix is to update the Makefiles for the vx_config and vx_color libraries and only remove the output of flex when in development mode.
Update: met-5.0/src/basic/vx_config/Makefile.am
Update: met-5.0/src/libcode/vx_color/Makefile.am

Enhance logic for parsing timing information and lat/lon grid definition from CF-compliant NetCDF files.
Posted 10/14/2014

Problem: When inferring the lat/lon grid definition from CF-compliant NetCDF files, MET quietly used the last lat/lon coordinate variable. Also, MET was assuming a single valid time for each file rather than determing the valid time for each field read.
Solution: Print a warning message when multiple lat/lon coordinate variables are found and use the first one. Rather than assuming a single valid time for each file, determine the valid time for each field read.
Update: met-5.0/src/libcode/vx_data2d_nccf/nccf_file.h
Update: met-5.0/src/libcode/vx_data2d_nccf/nccf_file.cc
Update: met-5.0/src/libcode/vx_data2d_nccf/data2d_nccf.cc

Fix parsing of timing information from GRIB2 table 4.48.
Posted 10/14/2014

Problem: The MET library code was failing to parse timing information from GRIB2 table 4.48.
Solution: Update the logic to correctly parse the timing information.
Update: met-5.0/src/libcode/vx_data2d_grib2/data2d_grib2.cc

Distribute default configuration file for the Plot-MODE-Field tool.
Posted 10/14/2014

Problem: The default configuration file for the Plot-MODE-Field was inadvertenetly omitted from the release.
Solution: Add the default configuration file for the Plot-MODE-Field tool.
Update: met-5.0/data/config/PlotModeFieldConfig_default

Update top-level README file.
Posted 10/14/2014

Problem: The configuration example in the top-level README file was missing the --enable-modis option.
Solution: Update the configuration example in README.
Update: met-5.0/README