RIP4

Purpose:

  • Read WRF (and MM5) output files and create plots (meta file format)
  • RIP4 only deals with WRF output data at the moment


Necessary software to run script:

  • Obtain the RIP4 TAR file from the WRF Download page
  • NCAR Graphics software
Hardware:
The code has been ported to the following machines
  • DEC Alpha
  • Linux
  • Sun
  • SGI
  • IBM
  • CRAY
  • Fujitsu
Steps:
  1. Unzip and untar the RIP4.TAR.gz file - you will have the following files:
     

    Doc/
    Makefile
    README
    color.tbl
    psadilookup.dat
    rip_sample.in
    ripdp_sample.in

    src/
    stationlist
    tabdiag_sample.in
    tserstn.dat

     

      rip and ripdp namelists
      documentation
     
  2. make the code:
     
    1. type "make" will produce the following list of compile options:

      make dec
      make linux
      make sun
      make sun2
      make sun90
      make sgi
      make sgi64
      make ibm
      make cray
      make vpp300
      make vpp5000
      make
      make clobber
      For Run on DEC_ALPHA
      For Run on LINUX
      For Run on SUN
      For Run on SUN if make sun didn't work
      For Run on SUN using F90
      For Run on SGI
      For Run on 64-bit SGI
      For Run on IBM SP2
      For Run on NCAR's Cray
      For Run on Fujitsu VPP 300
      For Run on Fujitsu VPP 5000
      to remove object files
      to remove object files and executables

    2. "make dec" will compile the code for a DEC Alpha computer
    3. After a successfull compilation the following new files will be created:
      rip Post-processing program.
      Before using this program, the input data must first be converted to the correct format expected by this program, using the program ripdp_wrf.
      ripcomp This program reads in two rip data files and compare their contents.
      ripdp_mm5 RIP Data Preparation program for MM5 input data 
      ripdp_wrf RIP Data Preparation program for WRF input data 
      ripinterp This program reads in model output (in rip-format files) from a coarse domain and from a fine domain, and creates a new file which has the data from the coarse domain file interpolated (bi-linearly) to the fine domain.  The header and data dimensions of the new file will be that of the fine domain, and the case name used in the file name will be the same as that of the fine domain file that was read in.
      ripshow This program reads in a rip data file and prints out the contents of the header record. 
      showtraj Sometimes, you may want to examine the contents of a trajectory position file. Since it is a binary file, the trajectory position file cannot simply be printed out. showtraj, reads the trajectory position file and prints out its contents in a readable form.  When you run showtraj, it prompts you for the name of the trajectory position file to be printed out. 
      tabdiag If fields are specified in the plot specification table for a trajectory calculation run, then RIP produces a .diag file that contains values of those fields along the trajectories. This file is an unformatted Fortran file, so another program is required to view the diagnostics. tabdiag serves this purpose. 
      upscale This program reads in model output (in rip-format files) from a coarse domain and from a fine domain, and replaces the coarse data with fine data at overlapping points. Any refinement ratio is allowed, and the fine domain borders do not have to coincide with coarse domain grid points.


       
  3. Run ripdp:
    1. Suggested to first make a directory to plae all newly created rip files in, as a large number of file will be created:
      mkdir DATA
    2. ripdp_wrf   [-n namelist_file]   casename   [basic|all]   data_file_1 data_file_2 data_file_3 ...
      ripdp_wrf -n ripdp_sample.in DATA/real basic ../DATA/real/wrfout_d01_2000-01-24_12:00:00 >& ripdp_log
  4. Run rip:
    1. First set the environment variable:
      setenv RIP_ROOT your_rip4_directory
    2. rip   [-f] model_case_name   rip_case_name
      rip -f DATA/real rip_sample
    3. If this is suceccful, the following files will be created:

      rip_sample.cgm
      rip_sample.out
      gmeta file
      log file - view this file if a problem occurred

  5. View meta file:

    idt   rip_sample.cgm

  6. Examples of plots:
    real output data

  7. Miscellanous:
    To convert NCGM files to GIF images, a very handy tool is the ncgm2gif script

    ncgm2gif -res 500x500 -nomerge test.cgm

    Will convert all images in test.cgm to testxxx.gif