WRF ARW User's Guide - MMM - UCAR

Table of Contents
• Introduction
• NCL
• RIP4
• ARWpost
• WPP
• VAPOR
Introduction
Chapter 9: Post-Processing Utilities
POST-PROCESSING
There are a number of visualization tools available to display WRF-ARW (http://wrfmodel.org/)
model data. Model data in netCDF format, can essentially be displayed using
any tool capable of displaying this data format.
Currently the following post-processing utilities are supported, NCL, RIP4, ARWpost
(converter to GrADS and Vis5D), WPP, and VAPOR.
NCL, RIP4 and VAPOR can currently only read data in netCDF format, while ARWpost
can read data in netCDF and GRIB1 format, and WPP can read data in netCDF and
binary format.
Required software
The only library that is always required is the netCDF package from Unidata
(http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/: login > Downloads > NetCDF - registration login
required).
netCDF stands for Network Common Data Form. This format is platform independent,
i.e., data files can be read on both big-endian and little-endian computers, regardless of
where the file was created. To use the netCDF libraries, ensure that the paths to these
libraries are set correct in your login scripts as well as all Makefiles.
Additional libraries required by each of the supported post-processing packages:
• NCL (http://www.ncl.ucar.edu)
• GrADS (http://grads.iges.org/home.html)
• Vis5D (http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~billh/vis5d.html)
• GEMPAK (http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/content/software/gempak/index.html)
• VAPOR (http://www.vapor.ucar.edu)
WRF-ARW V3: User’s Guide 9-1