Version 4.0 of the WRF Pre-Processing System (WPS) was released on 8 June 2018.
If you are not using some of the new datasets and/or new options, you should be able to use output from older WPS programs.
- Introduction of a 'lowres' option for geog_data_res to select coarse resolution
(typically, 5-arc-minutes) sources for all mandatory static fields. This is useful
in educational contexts or when the size of the geographical datasets must be minimized, e.g., when teaching with WRF/WPS in a Docker container or in the cloud.
- New GEOGRID.TBL entry for a pre-computed urban fraction field (FRC_URB2D) based on 30-meter NLCD 2011 data.
- A change in the default source of data for the MAXSNOALB and ALBEDO12M fields. The new defaults are MODIS-based and higher resolution (albedo is based on MODIS product MCD43C3, and snow albedo, 0.05 MODIS BRDF product).
- Two fixes for numerical inaccuracies in the polar stereographic projection.
- A new namelist option for ungrib, pmin, to specify the minimum pressure to extract from isobaric datasets.
- A combined Vtable for all CFSR/CFSv2 data, both pressure-level and surface fields (Vtable.CFSR).
- Added support for NCAR RDA's ECMWF "ds113.1" dataset.
- Added support for FV3GFS GRIB data.
- Generally, in the v4.0 release of the WPS, there is a move towards a model for handling geographical static fields in which all static fields that are not required by the default WRF namelist are optional from the viewpoint of geogrid.
* Datasets that were previously mandatory but that are now optional: VAR_SSO and LAKE_DEPTH.
Note: There are now three types of downloads for the static, geographical data:
1) Download the "full-resolution" sources for all default, mandatory fields.
Use this download for all simulations where accuracy is important.
2) Download the "low-resolution" sources for all mandatory fields.
Use this download for testing and educational purposes.
3) Downloads for individual, optional geographical fields.
Obtain these datasets as needed by different model options.
