Trouble generating lateral boundary conditions for regional MPAS

[kavulich]

I've been trying to run a forecast for a custom regional domain that I cut from a global domain using MPAS-Limited-Area, but I can't get past the lateral boundary condition creation step. Here, init_atmosphere fails with the following error:

Reading dimensions from input streams ...

----- reading dimensions from stream 'input' using file windstorm_12km.static.nc
nCells = 7409
nEdges = 22547
nVertices = 15139
TWO = 2
maxEdges = 6
maxEdges2 = 12
vertexDegree = 3
R3 = 3
nlcat = 20
nscat = 16
nMonths = 12
nSoilComps = 8
FIFTEEN = 15
nVertLevelsP1 *** not found in stream ***

ERROR: At least one fields to be read from the 'input' stream is dimensioned
ERROR: by 'nVertLevelsP1', but the 'nVertLevelsP1' dimension is not defined
ERROR: in the file windstorm_12km.static.nc
CRITICAL ERROR: Please check the input file(s) to be read by the 'input' input stream.

I think that the problem is occurring at the static file creation step, but I can't figure out how I can change my settings to ensure all the correct variables are defined (or maybe even the problem is with the grid file I created?) There are a number of messages printed in the log when I run init_atmosphere for creating the static file:

WARNING: Attribute file_id not found in grid.nc
WARNING: Using '' for the previous file_id.
WARNING: Attribute parent_id not found in grid.nc
WARNING: Setting parent_id to ''
WARNING: Attribute mesh_spec not found in grid.nc
WARNING: Setting mesh_spec to '0.0'
* Requested field zgrid is deactivated due to packages, or is a scratch variable.
* Requested field rdzw is deactivated due to packages, or is a scratch variable.
* Requested field dzu is deactivated due to packages, or is a scratch variable.
* Requested field rdzu is deactivated due to packages, or is a scratch variable.
* Requested field fzm is deactivated due to packages, or is a scratch variable.
... etc.

But I don't know if these are normal or not.

My run directories are on Derecho at /glade/derecho/scratch/kavulich/MPAS/GFS_windstorm/run_init_static/ ( and /glade/derecho/scratch/kavulich/MPAS/GFS_windstorm/run_init_lbcs/ (init_atmosphere for LBCs)

Please let me know if you need more information to help, and thanks in advance!

 

[mgduda]

From the error messages, it looks like you may be using a "static" file (windstorm_12km.static.nc in your case) as the input when creating LBCs. Since the LBCs have a vertical dimension, you'll instead need to use an input file that contains vertical grid information. The simplest option may be to use your initial conditions file as input when generating LBCs.

The warning messages that you're seeing when creating the static file look harmless, and they probably just reflect the fact that the mesh file doesn't contain certain global attributes that aren't strictly required.

 

[kavulich]

Thanks, I figured this was probably a simple mistake, I was able to successfully create LBCs and run my forecast!