Scheduled Downtime
On Friday 21 April 2023 @ 5pm MT, this website will be down for maintenance and expected to return online the morning of 24 April 2023 at the latest

Instantaneous shortwave radiation variables are all zeros in wrfout, but accumulated fields are normal — why?

845968376

New member
Hi everyone,


Recently I have been working on cloud–radiation related analysis using WRF output. I found that the following variables are present in my wrfout files:


  • SWDNB, SWDNBC, SWDNT, SWDNTC, SWDOWN, SWNORM
  • SWUPB, SWUPBC, SWUPT, SWUPTC

However, when I open the files with Panoply, I find that all of these instantaneous shortwave radiation fields are zero everywhere and at all times.
At the same time, their accumulated counterparts (for example, ACSWDNT, ACSWDNB, etc.) have non-zero values and look completely normal and reasonable.
So my questions are:
  1. Why are these instantaneous shortwave radiation variables all zeros, even though the accumulated variables are valid?
  2. If I want to output and analyze the true instantaneous shortwave radiation fields, what should I do?
For reference, here is the relevant part of my namelist.input:

&physics
mp_physics = 8, 8, 8,
ra_lw_physics = 4, 4, 4,
ra_sw_physics = 4, 4, 4,
radt = 9, 9, 9,
sf_sfclay_physics = 1, 1, 1,
sf_surface_physics = 2, 2, 2,
bl_pbl_physics = 1, 1, 1, ! YSU
bldt = 0, 0, 0,
cu_physics = 1, 1, 0,
cudt = 5, 5, 5,
isfflx = 1,
ifsnow = 0,
icloud = 1,
num_land_cat = 21,
sf_urban_physics = 0, 0, 0,
/

&dynamics
w_damping = 1,
diff_opt = 1, 1, 1,
km_opt = 4, 4, 4,
diff_6th_opt = 0, 0, 0,
diff_6th_factor = 0.12, 0.12, 0.12,
base_temp = 290.,
damp_opt = 3,
zdamp = 5000., 5000., 5000.,
dampcoef = 0.2, 0.2, 0.2,
khdif = 0, 0, 0,
kvdif = 0, 0, 0,
non_hydrostatic = .true., .true., .true.,
moist_adv_opt = 1, 1, 1,
epssm = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5,
scalar_adv_opt = 1, 1, 1,
etac = 0.1
/

&bdy_control
spec_bdy_width = 5,
spec_zone = 1,
relax_zone = 4,
specified = .true., .false., .false.,
nested = .false., .true., .true.,
/

&namelist_quilt
nio_tasks_per_group = 0,
nio_groups = 1,
/


Any suggestions or explanations would be greatly appreciated.


Thank you very much!
 
Top