This relates to failures in our modeling system caused by WRF updating to use hybrid vertical coordinates.
Our new WRF runs are from WRF ARW V4.1.3.
We updated to MCIP5.1, which gives VGTYP as a value of -9999 in METCRO3D, and then SMOKEv3.5.1 Laypoint fails with message:
NOTE: file “MET_CRO_3D” was used to initialize meteorology file header checks.
NOTE: Grid settings initialized using MET_CRO_3D in
gridded file.
*** ERROR ABORT in subroutine LAYPOINT
Cannot process vertical coordinate type -9999
Is -9999 a legal VGTYP out of MCIP, and if not how do I correct that?
If VGTYP = -9999 is legitimate from MCIP, what SMOKE and CMAQ versions are required to handle this MCIP?
Yes, the vertical coordinate type of -9999 from MCIPv5.0+ is intentional for the data that originate from WRF and use the hybrid vertical coordinate, as no existing token values in I/O API adequately describe that coordinate. CMAQ has been coded to expect that this is a reasonable outcome, but I’m not sure what SMOKE does…except as you noted here. @bbaek and @cjcoats, do you have any thoughts here?
SMOKE’s laypoint uses sigma-interpolation. It could be modified to use pressure (or better, density; both of which it already reads and interpolates to stack-sites) from MET_CRO_3D as a coordinate for interpolation. See the WEIGHTS( computation around line 1375. In principle, the result should be a better one (That would, however, somewhat increase the compute-cost) of the program…)
Using WRF with hybrid vertical coordinate system, if I set the MCIP files’ VGTYP = 7 to run LAYPOINT, and run with that for CMAQ, what magnitude of error am I accepting? Would it be more correct to have CMAQ run with MCIP files with VGTYP=-9999?
computation around line 1375. In principle, the result should be a better one