Technical Manual for PRECIS

Technical Manual for PRECIS The Met Office Hadley Centre regional climate modelling system Version 2.0.0 www.metoffice.gov.uk/precis Simon Wilson, David Hassell, David Hein, Changgui Wang, Simon Tucker Richard Jones and Ruth Taylor November 16, 2015 Contents 1 Introduction 11 1.1 Background .............................. 11 1.2 Objectivesandstructureofthemanual . 12 2 Hardware, operating system and software environment 13 2.1 Recommended Hardware Configurations . 13 2.2 Multi-processorsystems . 14 2.3 InstallationofLinux ......................... 14 2.4 Compilers ............................... 16 2.5 System setup before installing PRECIS . 17 3 PRECIS software and installation 19 3.1 Introduction.............................. 19 3.2 Disklayout .............................. 20 3.3 Main steps in installation process . 21 3.4 Installation of PRECIS software and data . 22 3.5 InstallationofMetOfficedata . 26 3.5.1 Boundary data supplied on hard drive . 26 3.6 Installation verification . 28 3.7 InstallationofCDAT ......................... 29 4 Experimental design and setup 30 4.1 Experimentaldesign ......................... 30 4.1.1 Regional climate model . 30 2 4.1.2 Choice of driving model and forcing scenario . 30 4.1.3 CMIP5 Driving GCMs and Representative Concentration Pathways ........................... 37 4.1.4 Simulationlength. 40 4.1.5 Initial condition ensembles . 41 4.1.6 Choice of land surface scheme . 42 4.1.7 Outputdata.......................... 42 4.1.8 Spinup............................. 42 4.1.9 Choice of region . 43 4.1.10 Land-seamask ........................ 43 4.1.11 Altitude ............................ 45 4.1.12 Altitude of inland waters . 45 4.1.13 Soil and land cover . 45 4.1.14 RCM calendar and clock . 46 4.1.15 RCM Resolution . 46 4.1.16 Outputformat ........................ 47 4.1.17 Checklist............................ 47 5 Configuring an experiment with PRECIS 49 5.1 Introduction.............................. 49 5.2 TheMainPRECISWindow . 51 5.2.1 Selectingaregion . 51 5.2.2 Configuringaregion . 54 5.2.3 Selecting the regional model and driving data . 56 5.2.4 Selecting the land surface scheme . 56 5.2.5 Selecting a start time and run length . 57 5.2.6 Selecting diagnostic output . 57 5.3 TheMenuBar............................. 58 5.3.1 File............................... 59 5.3.2 RegionTools ......................... 60 5.3.3 Extras ............................. 61 3 5.3.4 Monitor ............................ 61 5.3.5 Help .............................. 61 5.4 Startinganexperiment . 62 5.5 Rerunanexperiment ......................... 62 5.6 Stoppinganexperiment . 63 5.7 Usefuluserinterfacetips . 63 5.8 ThePRECISrun-timesequence . 76 5.8.1 Ancillary file creation . 76 5.8.2 Lateral boundary condition (LBC) file creation . 77 5.8.3 Reconfiguration of initial conditions . 78 5.8.4 Modelintegration. 78 5.9 Copying an experiment to another machine . 79 5.10 ExperimentMonitoring. 80 5.10.1 Maximum wind limit exceeded (MWLE) . 80 5.10.2 Modifying the graphical output plots . 81 5.11Archiving ............................... 84 5.12 Whattodoifsomethinggoeswrong . 84 6 Data formats, post-processing and displaying PRECIS data 87 6.1 Introduction.............................. 87 6.2 Dataformatsoverview . 87 6.3 PPFormatinPRECIS ........................ 89 6.3.1 PPFormatdescription . 89 6.3.2 ManipulatingPPfields . 89 6.4 GRIBformatinPRECIS. 93 6.4.1 Provided GRIB format tools . 93 6.5 Post Processing and visualization with GrADS . 94 6.5.1 ProvidedGrADSscripts . 94 6.6 Othervisualizationtools . 94 6.7 GlobalDatasets............................ 95 4 7 The PRECIS web site 96 A Contents of the PRECIS DVD 97 A.1 PRECISDVD............................. 97 B Directory layout and environment variables 99 B.1 Directory layout of the PRECIS system . 99 B.2 Environment variables used by PRECIS . 100 B.3 Configurationfiles. 101 B.4 Globaldata .............................. 102 B.4.1 ECMWF reanalysis diagnostic data . 103 B.4.2 CRUglobaldata . 103 C Standard diagnostic list 104 D Location and naming convention of diagnostic files produced by PRECIS 117 D.1 TheUMdatestamp ......................... 118 E PP header description 121 F Horizontal and Vertical resolution 131 F.1 Horizontalresolution . 131 F.2 Verticalresolution. 131 G Command line utilities 134 H Soil and Land cover in MOSES I 136 H.1 Sourcedata .............................. 136 H.2 Soil................................... 136 H.3 Landcover............................... 137 H.4 Notes on usage for overriding the default soil and land cover types 137 H.5 Definition of ’Available soil moisture in the root zone’ (STASH code8208)............................... 142 5 I Soil and Land cover in MOSES 2.2 144 J Regridding examples 147 K Aggregation examples 150 L Glossary and acronyms 153 6 List of Figures 5.1 ThemainPRECISwindow. 50 5.2 The Region Selection window . 64 5.3 Detailed Region Selection . 65 5.4 RegionArchive ............................ 66 5.5 TheEditRegionwindow. 67 5.6 The height and veg/soil edit window (MOSES1 land surface scheme selected)................................ 68 5.7 TheLandSurfaceSchemeWindow . 69 5.8 TheStartDateandRunLengthwindow . 69 5.9 TheOutputwindow ......................... 70 5.10 The load experiment window . 71 5.11 Multiprocessor Configuration window . 72 5.12 Currently Running experiment window . 72 5.13 TheRunPRECISwindow . 73 5.14Thestopwindow ........................... 74 5.15 TheRerunWindow.......................... 75 5.16 An example of the runtime monitoring window . 82 5.17 Interactive Graphical Output configuration window . 83 J.1 Regridding examples with ppregrid: 1a–1c: Regridding a global field to a limited area, rotated pole grid. 2a–2c: Regridding a limited area rotated pole field to a different, only partially overlapping limited area rotated pole grid. 148 7 J.2 More regridding examples with ppregrid: 3a–3b: Regridding a limited area rotated pole field to a limited area non-rotated pole grid. 4a–4b: Regridding a limited area rotated pole field to global non- rotated pole grid whose left hand edge is at 190.0◦E. 5a–5b: Regridding a limited area rotated pole field to limited area non-rotated pole grid which is extended from the source grid’s limits by 200 target grid boxes to the west and 10 target grid boxes tothesouth,eastandnorth.. 149 K.1 Aggregation examples with ppaggregate: 1a–1c: Aggregating a limited area rotated pole field to a global non-rotated pole grid. 2a–2c: Aggregating a limited area rotated pole field to a different, only partially overlapping limited area rotated pole grid. 151 K.2 More aggregation examples with ppaggregate: 3a–3b: Aggregating a limited area rotated pole field to a limited area non-rotated pole grid. 4a–4b: Aggregating a limited area rotated pole field to global non-rotated pole grid whose left hand edge is at 90.0◦E. 5a–5b: Aggregating a limited area rotated pole field to limited area non-rotated pole grid which is extended from the source grid’s limits. ................................. 152 8 List of Tables 3.1 Sizes for different PRECIS output data types for 1 year and 30 years for a 106×111grid........................ 21 4.1 Overview of Representative Concentrations Pathways used in CMIP5 39 5.1 Height and Veg/Soil type indication . 55 5.2 Mouse/keyboard button functions in the ‘Edit Region’ window . 56 5.3 OptionsfromtheHelpmenu. 62 5.4 Description of the text fields in the runtime monitor window . 86 C.1 Standard diagnostics: Climate means . 106 C.2 Standard diagnostics: Daily . 111 C.3 Standarddiagnostics: Six-hourly . 114 C.4 Standarddiagnostics: Three-hourly . 115 C.5 Standarddiagnostics: Hourly . 116 D.1 p? (characters 8–9) values: The time period over which the data has been processed and the amount of data in the file. 118 D.2 Single letter date stamp equivalences . 119 D.3 File content and UM date stamp examples (as seen in PRECIS outputfilenames)........................... 120 F.1 Hybrid values of the PRECIS model vertical coordinate system . 133 H.1 Grid box coverage for primary and secondary land cover types . 137 H.2 WHSSoilcodesandtheirproperties . 140 H.3 WHS land cover classes . 141 9 H.4 Definition of deep soil levels (in metres from the surface). 143 H.5 Specificationoftherootzone. 143 I.1 LandsurfacetypesinMOSES2.2 . 145 I.2 The 16 IGBP land types + 2 BATS types ............. 146 10 Chapter 1 Introduction Timely access to detailed climate change scenarios is particularly vital in developing countries, where economic stresses are likely to increase vulnerability to potentially damaging impacts of climate change. In order to help address this need the Met Office Hadley Centre has developed PRECIS, a regional climate modelling system which can be run on a personal computer (PC). The aim of PRECIS (Providing REgional Climates for Impacts Studies) is to allow developing countries, or groups of developing countries, to generate their own national scenarios of climate change for use in impacts studies. This will allow transfers of technology and ownership resulting in much more timely and effective dissem- ination of expertise and awareness than if results are simply handed out from climate model experiments run in developed countries. In addition, countries using PRECIS are in a better position to validate the model using their own historical meteorological observations. An important aspect of PRECIS is the availability of training and training materials explaining its role and how to make the best use of it. One of the main materials is this technical manual (also available as on-line help

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