Extraction of Vertical Profiles of Atmospheric Variables from Gridded Binary, Edition 2 (GRIB2) Model Output Files
Abstract
Vertical profiles of meteorological variables from model output data provide a means to ascertain the accuracy of the model compared to sounding data from observation systems such as radiosondes, radar profilers, unmanned aerial vehicles, and other atmospheric measurement systems. While various statistical packages provide a means to obtain upper air data from model output, many are fairly restrictive in terms of vertical extent and resolution, and some are large and complex. The method described here allows one to extract vertical profiles from Gridded Binary, edition 2 (GRIB2) model output at the inherent vertical resolution with relatively modest effort without recourse to complex software packages. It employs software that is readily available on many computer systems combined with relatively modest additional processing. Specifically, the method described herein uses wgrib2 commands along with a Python script or program to produce tabular text files that in turn may be processed using publicly available software on the US Army Research Laboratory GitHub site to generate soundings for user-defined levels and layers.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 18, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1045574
Entities
People
- J. L. Cogan
Organizations
- United States Army Research Laboratory