The data files are accessed by Met.3D through the definition of a data pipeline. The data pipeline definition can also be saved and re-used in subsequent usage either in interactive or non-interactive mode.
Fig.4 Met.3D load data pipeline.
The New Dataset to be accessed by Met.3D is created using the New Dataset GUI.The GUI has options to name the dataset, to provide the path of the directory containing the files, option to provide wild cards in case of multiple files spread across multiple directories. There is an option to choose the file format as Met.3D supports both netCDF and grid files.
Additional options specific to the content of the data like ‘enable vertical re-gridding’, ‘enable probability region detection filter’, ‘ treat rotated grid as regular grid’, ‘Convert geometric height to pressure using the ICAO standard atmosphere’ are provided that can be turned on or off based on the input data.
There surface pressure field type has option to indicate if it is to be automatically interpreted or as spectral field or logarithmic spectral field. The user can also activate the grid consistency check so that the pressure levels are in a proper order.
Fig.5 Met.3D create data pipeline.
With Met.3D it is possible to create new variables derived from the variables available in the input data. These variables which will be used to create derived variables, can be specified in the Input variables for derived variables box.
The memory manager can be set to one of the options - NWP or Analysis or Trajectories, based on the input data.
The data reading can be speeded up by using Multi-thread option in the Scheduler ID, in case the user hardware supports multi-threading else it can be set to single thread.
All the options specified above to describe a data pipeline can also be saved for later use by pressing the save configuration button.
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supports gridded data (e.g., from numerical simulations or from observations) and trajectory data.
This section provides details on
- which data types and file formats are supported,
- how data can be loaded in Met.3D, and
- how additional atmospheric quantities can be derived from gridded input data.