Problems with ps_rand_local in the Bgrid Model #354
Description
Describe the bug
While trying to run the bgrid_solo model, I ran into a number of issues. These issues are mainly related to the observation preparation step. I'm using models/bgrid_solo/ps_rand_local.f90 routine to generate an input file named ps_rand.out that can then be fed to create_obs_sequence. In order to run ps_rand_local, I run the following command:
./ps_rand_local < ps_rand.input
ps_rand.input is a file I prepared ahead of time which includes answers to questions asked by ps_rand_local. The contents of ps_rand.input are as follows:
3
100
-90
90
0
360
Here, 3 is the number of observations and 100 is the observation error variance. The remaining input parameters are self-explanatory. The first error message I get from ps_rand_local is the following:
FATAL ERROR in get_unit
initialize_utilities() or initialize_mpi_utilities()
must be called before calling get_unit().
utilities_mod.f90
stopping.
To bypass this, I added this call initialize_utilities('ps_rand_local') right before the call for get_unit (So, one also needs to add initialize_utilities in the modules to use from utilities_mod towards the top of the file). This fixes this issue. Once the routine finishes running, it writes out ps_rand.out which should look like this:
3
0
0
0
RADIOSONDE_SURFACE_PRESSURE
-1
-1
-1
0.0000000000000000
360.00000000000000
-90.000000000000000
90.000000000000000
0 0
100.00000000000000
0
RADIOSONDE_SURFACE_PRESSURE
-1
-1
-1
0.0000000000000000
360.00000000000000
-90.000000000000000
90.000000000000000
0 0
100.00000000000000
0
RADIOSONDE_SURFACE_PRESSURE
-1
-1
-1
0.0000000000000000
360.00000000000000
-90.000000000000000
90.000000000000000
0 0
100.00000000000000
set_def.out
Next, I run create_obs_sequence in order to create an obs sequence template using this command:
./create_obs_sequence < ps_rand.out
You will get complaints about the observation type being invalid and that's (I believe) because of the single space that precedes RADIOSONDE_SURFACE_PRESSURE. If you fix this, you'll see that the file that is written out is named " set_def.out" with a space at the beginning. This would cause an issue when trying to use that file for the create_fixed_network_seq routine. In addition, I got some problems with the variance (100) being interpreted inside set_def.out as sometimes 10000 and other time 1. All of this to say, ps_rand_local is writing stuff to file without proper formatting. Here is what the body of the file currently looks like:
! Input number of obs
write(iunit, *) num
! No obs values or qc
write(iunit, *) 0
write(iunit, *) 0
num_done = 0
do while(num_done < num)
! There are more obs
write(iunit, *) 0
! Kind is ps
write(iunit, *) 'RADIOSONDE_SURFACE_PRESSURE'
! Put this on model level -1
write(iunit, *) VERTISSURFACE
write(iunit, *) level
! Want randomly located in horizontal
write(iunit, *) -1
! Input longitude and latitude bounds
write(iunit, *) bot_lon
write(iunit, *) top_lon
write(iunit, *) bot_lat
write(iunit, *) top_lat
! Time is 0 days and 0 seconds for create_obs_sequence base
write(iunit, *) 0, 0
! Error variance
write(iunit, *) err_var
num_done = num_done + 1
end do
! File name default is set_def.out
write(iunit, *) 'set_def.out'
and here is what I changed to make it work:
! Input number of obs
write(iunit, '(I5)') num
! No obs values or qc
write(iunit, '(I1)') 0
write(iunit, '(I1)') 0
num_done = 0
do while(num_done < num)
! There are more obs
write(iunit, '(I1)') 0
! Kind is ps
write(iunit, '(A)') 'RADIOSONDE_SURFACE_PRESSURE'
! Put this on model level -1
write(iunit, '(I2)') VERTISSURFACE
write(iunit, '(I2)') level
! Want randomly located in horizontal
write(iunit, '(I2)') -1
! Input longitude and latitude bounds
write(iunit, '(F6.1)') bot_lon
write(iunit, '(F6.1)') top_lon
write(iunit, '(F6.1)') bot_lat
write(iunit, '(F6.1)') top_lat
! Time is 0 days and 0 seconds for create_obs_sequence base
write(iunit, *) 0, 0
! Error variance
write(iunit, '(F5.1)') err_var
num_done = num_done + 1
end do
! File name default is set_def.out
write(iunit, '(A)') 'set_def.out'