WRF Software Testing
The testing conducted on the WRF code to insure bit-for-bit behavior on differing
processor counts runs through hundreds of short forecasts in about 30 minutes. These
simulations are very short (about 10 time steps). The purpose is to activate as many
possible physics options. If single processor vs multiple processor results differ,
then there is a strong likelihood that improper initialization of variables or
missing communications or race conditions exist. While tracking down the root cause
of the problem is extremely time consuming, physics options that exhibit clean
bit-wise reproducible results are more likely to be robust.
This testing is conducted automatically when modifications are proposed to either the
develop branch or one of the release branches of the WRF github repository, located
at:
https://github.com/wrf-model/WRF
For more information on the testing sytstem, please see
https://github.com/davegill/wrf-coop/blob/master/README_user.md
===========================
WRF Test Framework
===========================
1. Overview
The WRF Testing Framework is designed to build, test, and analyze test results for
one or more versions of the WRF model. This is a docker containerized solution that
is available for interactive testing, but mostly the purpose of the wrf-coop software
is support of the WRF automated jenkins testing.
COMPILERS:
GNU fortran versions 9
PARALLEL BUILD CONFIGURATIONS:
Serial => S (single-processor) build
OpenMP => O (multithreaded, shared memory) build
MPI => M (multiprocessor, distributed memory) build
WRF COMPILE-TIME VARIATIONS
Test Name Parallel Tests
ARW SOM
ARW real*8 SOM
ARW Nested SOM
ARW Moving Nest M
CHEM S M
CHEM with KPP S M
Idealized Fire SOM
Idealized Super Cell SOM
Idealized Super Cell real*8 SOM
Idealized Baroclinc Wave SOM
Idealized 2D Hill S
Idealized Single Column Model S
WRFPlus
WRFDA-4DVAR
ARW em_real RUN-TIME VARIATIONS
Adaptive Time Stepping
Digital Filtering
FDDA: Spectral nudging, obs nudging, surface and upper air nudging
Stochastic Forcing
Nesting
Vertical Nesting
Hybrid and Terrain Following Vertical Coordinates
Dry and Moist Potential Temperature
restart
2. Physics Options Applied in WRF Tests
The following Table and associated table Key summarizes the combinations of physics
options that are tested for WRF. It is important to note that while the choice of
one physics option should not influence the choice of another physics option (i.e.,
the choice of a microphysics scheme should be independent of the cumulus scheme choice),
in practice certain options are developed and tested for a small subset of other physics
option combinations. Therefore, the following table is useful as a guide for
combinations of WRF physics options that are known to provide bit-for-bit results
between serial and MPI versions of WRF. Each row in the table represents a specific
test, and each column a specific physics option. Each of the physics combinations
listed in the tables can be considered a "safe" combination that will provide successful
short-term forecasts with bit-for-bit results when comparing single-processor output
against multi-processor output.
KEY 1: Column Labels (Tables 1-7)
----------------------------------------
NL => Test Namelist Identifier
PBL => Planetary Boundary Layer Scheme
CU => Cumulus Scheme
MP => Microphysics Scheme
LW => Longwave Radiation Scheme
SW => Shortwave Radiation Scheme
SFC => Surface Physics Scheme
LAND => Land Surface Scheme
URB => Urban Physics Scheme
SHCU => Shallow Cumulus Scheme
TOPO => Topography-Following Wind Scheme
----------------------------------------
KEY 2: Test Namelist Codes (Tables 1-7)
----------------------------------------
AD => Adaptive Time Stepping
DF => Digital Filtering
FD => FDDA
NE => Basic Nesting
VN => Vertical Nesting
----------------------------------------
TABLE 1:
WRF ARW Tests, Providing Successful 10 Time Step Forecasts,
and Bit-for-Bit Results for
Serial vs. MPI Runs and Serial vs. OpenMP Runs
NL PBL CU MP LW SW SFC LAND URB SHCU TOPO
cmt 1 11 6 4 4 1 2 0 0 0
conus C C C C C C C 0 0 0
kiaps1NE 11 14 16 14 14 1 4 0 4 0
kiaps2 1 3 16 14 14 91 4 1 4 0
rap 5 1 28 4 4 5 3 0 0 0
solaraNE 5 16 8 4 4 5 2 0 0 0
tropical T T T T T T T 0 0 0
urb3bNE 8 3 16 14 14 2 4 3 0 0
03 4 3 3 24 24 4 1 0 0 0
03DF 4 6 3 4 4 4 1 0 0 0
03FD 4 14 3 4 4 4 1 0 0 0
3dtke 0 C C C C 1 C 0 0 0
06 8 2 6 24 24 2 1 0 0 0
07NE 8 6 8 5 5 1 2 2 0 0
10 4 14 10 1 2 4 7 0 0 0
11 4 2 10 1 2 4 7 0 0 0
14 4 2 3 3 3 4 3 0 0 0
16 9 6 8 5 5 2 7 0 0 0
17 2 1 4 3 3 2 2 0 0 0
17AD 2 1 4 3 3 2 2 0 0 0
18 10 14 8 5 5 10 7 0 0 0
20 12 3 4 1 2 1 2 0 0 0
20NE 12 1 4 1 2 1 2 0 0 0
38 2 1 2 4 4 2 7 0 0 0
48 4 1 3 24 24 4 1 0 0 0
49 1 3 3 24 24 91 2 0 0 0
50 1 3 3 24 24 91 4 0 0 0
51 1 3 3 24 24 91 4 0 0 0
52 4 11 17 24 24 4 1 0 0 0
52DF 4 11 17 4 4 4 1 0 0 0
52FD 4 7 17 4 4 4 1 0 0 0
60 1 1 6 24 24 1 4 0 0 0
60NE 1 1 6 4 4 1 4 0 0 0
65DF 9 1 28 4 4 2 3 0 0 0
66FD 4 14 3 4 4 4 1 0 0 0
71 1 1 8 4 4 1 2 0 0 0
78 1 1 52 4 4 1 2 0 0 0
79 5 14 2 4 4 2 7 0 0 0
NL PBL CU MP LW SW SFC LAND URB SHCU TOPO
TABLE 2:
WRF ARW Tests, Providing Successful 10 Time Step Forecasts,
and Bit-for-Bit Results for
Serial vs. MPI Runs and Serial vs. OpenMP Runs
REAL*8
NL PBL CU MP LW SW SFC LAND URB SHCU TOPO
14 4 6 3 3 3 4 3 0 0 0
17AD 2 2 4 3 3 2 2 0 0 0
NL PBL CU MP LW SW SFC LAND URB SHCU TOPO
TABLE 3:
WRF Idealized Supercell Tests, Providing Successful 10 Time Step Forecasts,
and Bit-for-Bit Results for
Serial vs. MPI Runs and Serial vs. OpenMP Runs
NL PBL CU MP LW SW SFC
02NE 0 0 1 0 0 1
03 0 0 1 0 0 1
03NE 0 0 1 0 0 1
04 0 0 2 0 0 1
NL PBL CU MP LW SW SFC
TABLE 4:
WRF Idealized Supercell Tests, Providing Successful 10 Time Step Forecasts,
and Bit-for-Bit Results for
Serial vs. MPI Runs and Serial vs. OpenMP Runs
REAL*8
NL PBL CU MP LW SW SFC
02NE 0 0 1 0 0 1
03 0 0 1 0 0 1
03NE 0 0 1 0 0 1
04 0 0 2 0 0 1
NL PBL CU MP LW SW SFC
TABLE 5:
WRF Idealized B-Wave Tests, Providing Successful 10 Time Step Forecasts,
and Bit-for-Bit Results for
Serial vs. MPI Runs and Serial vs. OpenMP Runs
NL PBL CU MP LW SW SFC
1NE 0 0 1 0 0 0
2 0 0 1 0 0 0
2NE 0 0 1 0 0 0
3 0 0 2 0 0 0
NL PBL CU MP LW SW SFC