NUM_METGRID_SOIL_LEVELS Error with GEFS in real.exe

[taytaytay]

Hello everyone,

I’m currently running WRF with GEFS (gep01 - gep30) and using the Vtable.GFSENS for ungrib. Everything worked fine up to the met_em file generation stage.

However, when I run real.exe, I encounter this error:

d01 2024-08-25_06:00:00 ---- ERROR: NUM_METGRID_SOIL_LEVELS must be greater than 1
----------------- ERROR -------------------
namelist : num_metgrid_soil_levels = 2
input files : NUM_METGRID_SOIL_LEVELS = 1 (from met_em files).
d01 2024-08-25_06:00:00 ---- ERROR: Mismatch between namelist and global attribute NUM_METGRID_SOIL_LEVELS
NOTE: 2 namelist vs input data inconsistencies found.

In my namelist.wps, I’ve set the &mod_levs section as follows:

press_pa = 201300 , 200100 , 100000 ,
95000 , 90000 ,
85000 , 80000 ,
75000 , 70000 ,
65000 , 60000 ,
55000 , 50000 ,
45000 , 40000 ,
35000 , 30000 ,
25000 , 20000 ,
15000 , 10000 ,
5000 , 1000

From this, I expected to get two soil levels (201300 and 200100). However, the met_em files only show NUM_METGRID_SOIL_LEVELS = 1.

Has anyone else encountered this issue with GEFS and Vtable.GFSENS? Could this be related to how soil levels are defined or extracted? Any suggestions or workarounds to ensure both soil levels are properly included in the met_em files?

Thank you for any advice!

---

 

[wr1989]

I encountered this yesterday using WRF v4.6.1 with an HRRR initialization. I was able to get it resolved by removing, redownloading and relinking the HRRR grib files for my analysis period. It seems like somewhere along the line, my files were somehow corrupted.

Not sure if this will work for you but it's worth a shot.

 

[Ming Chen]

This issue looks more like a data issue, --- how many levels of soil data do you have in your GEFS files ?

 

[taytaytay]

Hi,

I’ve resolved the issue by using GEFS A and GEFS B, following the guidance in this thread:
Resolved issues with GEFS ICs causing WRF to crash in first model time step