Met. Office Operational NWP Products

Introduction

These pages describe the operational numerical analyses and forecast data obtained from the UK Met. Office Unified Model (UM) since 23 October 2000. The dataset consist of global and mesoscale fields of various meteorological parameters on a number of vertical levels. Both analyses and forecast data up to 12 hours (in some cases) are available. Infrastructure support in retrieving these data is provided by the Met. Office.

Please note that this is the MODEL OUTPUT ONLY, not the PUM model software, which is located at http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/data/pum/

What's New?

23/8/10 NWP archive file changes

Up to now, the NWP data have been split by variable. However, this generates a large number of small files which are difficult to manage. We would like to remove this pre-processing, so that the files are stored in the same form that they are extrcated from the Met Office -i.e. just in a single file for each model/stream/timestep combination. This will make the NWP global and NAE data consistent with new NWP model output we are planning to archive in the near future. We would like to enact these changes by the end of this week. If you have any concerns, please contact us.

27/4/10 NWP Output field changes.

Information concerning the recent changes to the NWP output is available on http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/data/um/UM_Changes_Mar10.html.

15/3/10 Global Fields -Change in spatial resolution.

It appears that the horizontal resolution of the global fields (on pressure levels) has increased since 09/03/10, and that additional vertical levels have ben added at the top of the height range. We are currently making equiries with the Met Office to obtain more details.

12/6/08 NAE Forecast fields.

The problems which affected the t+4 to t+6 forecast fields were rectified earlier in the year (March 2008), and these data are now being collected as part of the NWP operational data stream.

1/6/08 UM rerun data for July 2006

The Met Office have rerun the UM to regenerate data missing from their MASS archive for 08-28/07/2006. These data are available from the BADC at : /badc/ukmo-um/data/reruns/2006/07 .

Unfortuately, it was not possible to add these data to the main archive as they have different output timesteps (e.g. 3,9,15,21 rather than 0,6,12,18). Users wishing to use these data should download them directly from the archive.

21/02/2008 NAE Missing Forecast fields

We have found that the t+4 to t+6 forecast fields for the NAE data have not been extracted properly from the Met Office archive. This issue has been traced to a change in the way that the Met Office store these data on their system. We are currently working to amend the system so that the extra fields are extracted on a daily basis with the rest of the NAE data, and will recover the missing data for 2007 as soon as possible.

17/10/2007 Problems with Storage Unit

We have experienced a sudden problem with the Network Attached Storage (NAS) unit used to store the ukmo-um dataset. We are currently working to restore the dataset from our backup system, but until this is complete, some data may be unavailable. We apologise for the disruption to the service.

08/10/07 UM Model naming convention.

The Met Office are standardising the way their Unified Model should be referred to:

The Met Office Unified Model is a registered trademark. The Met Office must be acknowledged in any reproduction of data, publication of papers, reports, literature to customers or presentations arising out of the use of the software using: "Met Office Unified ModelTM (UK)".

Full details are given in http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/data/um/UM_Naming_Convention.html.

5/4/07 Met Office extractions

We are currently in discussions with the Met Office to improve the data recovery process from the Met Office archive, in an effort to fill the gaps which exist. We have made constant efforts over the past years to recover the missing data, and have finally convinced the Met Office to provide some official assistance. It is likely that 2006 will be the first year to be filled, though as yet we have no indication how long this will take.

21/11/06 NAE model

We have just learned that the UK mesoscale model has been retired. Data from the North Atlantic Europe (NAE) model is intended to replace this data stream (from 1/11/06), though users should be aware that the size of these data files is much larger (~10x the size) please see http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/data/um/nae/nae.html for more information.

24/4/06 Model physics and grids

The global model physics and output grids and levels have changed. Please see this page for more details

13/12/05 Enhancements to Global model output fields.

Global fields are now available on a 640x481 grid, at 50 model levels, top level 65km (this compares with 432x325, 38 model levels, 38km top height). Please see this page for more details.

20/6/05 NWP archive holdings

The data held in the NWP archive can now be viewed on-line for the period 1/1/2004-30/6/2005: global data mesoscale data , where a red box indicates a datafile We are currently continuing to fill in the gaps in the archive as quickly as possible.

13/06/05 NWP Server upgrade

The server holding the BADC NWP archive is currently being upgraded to improve stability. The dataset should be back on line by tomorrow (14/6/05).

13/06/05 Archive restructuring

Please note that we are in the process of restructuring the BADC NWP archive. All data from 1/1/04 is now held in the new format of 1 diagnostic variable per file per timestep (rather than the field code used previously). Analysis fields at 0,6,12,18Z are stored, along with all of the forecast fields from 1-6 hours from each analysis time.

Mesoscale : lb[a,f][m,p]yyyymmddhh_STASHCODE_fh.pp

Global: ag[a,f][m,p]yyyymmddhh_STASHCODE_fh.pp

where yyyymmddhh is the year, month,day and assimilation time, STASHCODE is the STASHMASTER parameter code, fh is the forecast timestep (from the assimilation time), and pp indicates that the files are in binary "pp" format.

The directory structure has also been changed to bring it in line with the BADC ECMWF holdings. The mesoscale files and global data are now stored under:

/badc/ukmo-um/data/meso/lb/a[m,p] for the analysis fields

/badc/ukmo-um/data/meso/lb/f[m,p] for the forecast fields

/badc/ukmo-um/data/global/ag/a[m,p] for the analysis fields

/badc/ukmo-um/data/global/ag/f[m,p] for the forecast fields

Pre-2004 data are still available in the old format under /badc/ukmo-um/data/mesocale/[sm,mm] and /badc/ukmo-um/data/global/[mg,sg], although these will be phased out as the data are archived in the newer format.

12/10/04 Possible problem with UM data from the Met Office MASS system

The BADC would like to apologise for the ongoing problems with beginning the regular updates of the NWP archive from the Met Office. We have now established a reliable and efficient method for recovering data from the archive, and have been extracting all the global and mesoscale data for 2004. These data will be added to the archive using the filenaming convention and directory structure of the BADC ECMWF ERA archive, with the aim that the entire archive will eventually be in this improved format. We had begun to populate the archive with the new data from MASS when it was found that a number of fields showed signs of corruption. The Met Office are currently investigating this issue as a matter of urgency. Until this is resolved, we are reluctant to update the archive.

17/2/04 Problems with extraction of UM data from the Met Office.

The BADC would like to apologise for the delay in bringing the Unified model data archive up to date. The service was originally disrupted in 2003 due to problems with our machine used to transfer data from the Met Office, and was followed by the upheaval of the physical move of the Met Office to Exeter. We were told that the extraction of data from the Met Office archive would be far more efficient than the previous system and that it would be operational soon after the move was completed. However, at this time it has not been possible to recover data from the system (in the format previously archived) with any reliability, and we have been advised by the Met Office to delay extraction requests while they investigate the problem. As soon as it is resolved, we will recover UM data as a matter of urgency.

30/4/03 MDIAG unpacking information added.

IMPORTANT: byte swapping of these data files may be required before they can be read on your systems. Utilities are available to perform the byte-swapping and convert these files into several other formats such as NetCDF .

MDIAG users: The BADC UM data will need to be unpacked before ingestion into MDIAG. Executable to do the unpacking are also available (see under Software utilities).

Restricted data

Access to Met. Office Operational NWP data at the BADC is restricted. The online application for access to the Met Office Unified Model data includes acceptance of the Met Office Conditions of Use. You will then be given access to these datasets via a Web account. Details of your account will be sent by e-mail. Please note that access to the data is provided on a per person per project basis (i.e. all members on a same project who will be using the data must individually apply for access to the data)./P>

Access to data

The Met. Office Operational NWP data are stored as binary files in pp format.

Please note:

These data are in the same byte order as they were on the Met Office systems, and as such they may require byte swapping before they can be read into existing software utilities such as XCONV on your systems. Byte swapping software has been available for some time from the BADC and is described at http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/help/software/xconv/index.html.

Software utilities to extract selected data types and levels and plot the data are now available from the BADC . These also allow the user to convert these files into several other formats such as NetCDF.

Documentation

The BADC has prepared an overview of the dataset, describing the model and outlining the of the data.The document contains a section on technical aspects of using the data held at the BADC, including acquiring the data, the data format, coverage, resolution, and software to read the files and display the data.

Citation

Date of citation

Who to Contact

General queries about these pages and access to the data should be directed to the BADC support line. Your query should be answered within one working day. When follow-up work is required, the BADC support will carry out the work as quickly and efficiently as possible, and in any case, the user will be kept informed of progress.

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