Tutorials

Under construction

Overview

Forecast and observations are stored in the ./input/ directory. Each input source has its own directory. In addition to data files, these directories also contain metadata about the input source.

An input source has the following dimesions:

DimensionDescriptionSpecified by
LocationGeographical locationslocations.nl*
OffsetTime since model initializationnamelists/*/schemes.nl
DateInitialization datefilename
InitInitialization hour (e.g. 00 UTC, 06 UTC)filename
MemberEnsemble membermembers.nl
VariableE.g. temperature, wind speed, humidityvariables.nl
* Note that for some file formats (such as NetCDF), the locations metadata is specified by fields within the file.

Locations

The locations.nl file contains latitude and longitude information for all locations in the dataset:
0 code=YVR lat=49.1955 lon=-123.1778 elev=0
1 code=YYJ lat=48.6401 lon=-123.4291 elev=0

Latitude and longitude are required. Elevation is optional, although certain post-processing schemes use the locations' elevations.

Offsets

tutFcst class=InputFlat folder=tutFcst type=forecast useCodeInFilename fileExtension=txt offsets=0,12,24

This tells COMPS that the input has three leadtimes: 0 hours, 12 hours, and 24 hours.

Date

Variables

The variables.nl file defines how each variable in the dataset maps to COMPS internal variables.
T name=SurfaceTemperature

This tells COMPS that the variable SurfaceTemperature is of type T. COMPS internal variables are defined in namelists/default/variables.nl.

The easiest option is to use one of the datasets that comes with COMPS. This is a good option for testing new methods. You can also use your own data provided you can convert it into one of several supported formats. Finally, you can write your own interface to your data.
OptionPurpose
Use existing dataTest the performance of new methods
Use existing format
Create new format

Example

FilePurpose
data/contains data files
variables.nlMaps variables
A collection of post-processing schemes and other settings that together produce a