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WRF Default Landcover and Soil Texture dataset sources and citations

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Dear Sir or Madam,
Is there a corresponding resource to the WPS data downloads page (i.e., Static Data Downloads)
that documents their root data sources and production details?

For example, I am specifically interested in the documentation for the following static fields distributed w/ WPS v4.3.1:
modis_landuse_20class_15s_with_lakes
soiltype_top_30s
soiltype_bot_30s

Thank you for any information you can provide.
 
Thank you for your response.
At the website you provided, I see under Background Surface Fields, information for

1) Modified IGBP MODIS 20-category vegetation
This dataset does not include lakes, like the WPS Alternative High Resolution field used (https://www2.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/src/wps_files/modis_landuse_20class_15s_with_lakes.tar.gz), so further details would be useful.

2)Hybrid (30-second for CONUS and 5-min elsewhere) 16-category soil texture map
It seems that this dataset likely corresponds to WRF default soiltype_top_30s and soiltype_bot_30s.

In the readme, it states:
"The FAO two-layer 5-minute 16-category global soil texture maps
are remaped into global 30-second regular lat-lon grid. Within CONUS,
the soil texture is then replaced by the 30-second STATSGO data
obtained from http://www.essc.psu.edu/soil_info/index.cgi?soil_data&index.html.
The dominant soil texture from 0-30 cm (30-100 cm) from multi-layer
STATSGO soil was selected to match the FAO soil depths and to produce
the top (bottom) soil texture."

And indeed, in Dennis and Berbery (2022; https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-21-0101.1), they write:
"The default soil texture classifications in WRF are provided
using the USDA STATSGO soil dataset (NRCS 2012). For
regions outside of the United States, the Food and Agricul-
ture Organization (FAO) Soil Map of the World (FAO/
UNSECO 1971), which is about 5-km grid spacing, is
employed. Within the United States, STATSGO is used."
 
Hello,

I would like to add a follow up question to this post.

I cant find the year when the soil texture data used in WRF version 4.2.2 (or latest version) was created. Is it 2012? or more recent?
Where can I find information on this? The above links also does not give the exact details on this.

Thank you!

-Lyndz
 
Hello,

I would like to add a follow up question to this post.

I cant find the year when the soil texture data used in WRF version 4.2.2 (or latest version) was created. Is it 2012? or more recent?
Where can I find information on this? The above links also does not give the exact details on this.

Thank you!

-Lyndz
In fact the origin of the data is not clear in the documentation, unfortunately. Alternatively you could use a high-resolution, well-documented global dataset derived from the Harmonized World Soil Database, version 2.0, and adapted for use as input to WRF. You can find it here: Global soil type dataset for WRF-ARW model, based on HWSD version 2
 
Hi jobonaf,

I hope you're doing well. My name is Aurora, and I'm using your data from the hwsd2-wrf repository. I wanted to thank you for sharing this project.

However, I'm having some trouble understanding how to convert the TIFF files to WPS binary data. In particular, I am using the following command:

SoilType_i1 $ convert_geotiff -c 16 -b 3 -w 2 /the-path/SoilType_depth000to030cm_i1.tif

This process seems to finish successfully, creating many files with names like "00601-00700.00501-00600" along with an "index" file. Here is the content of the index file:

projection = regular_ll
known_x = 1
known_y = 504
known_lat = -31.691668
known_lon = -71.283333
dx = 8.332824e-03
dy = 8.332443e-03
type = categorical
signed = yes
units = "NO UNITS"
description = "NO DESCRIPTION"
wordsize = 2
tile_x = 100
tile_y = 100
tile_z = 1
category_min = 1
category_max = 17
tile_bdr = 3
missing_value = 17.000000
scale_factor = 1.000000
row_order = bottom_top
endian = little

I modified the GEOGRID.TBL to point to this directory and updated the 'geog_data_res' field in the namelist.wps to use this data option. However, when running geogrid, it doesn't finish successfully and exits with the following error:

ERROR: Error in ext_pkg_write_field

I suspect I might be using the convert_geotiff command incorrectly, and I was hoping you could help me figure out what's going wrong. Below is my namelist.wps file:

&share
wrf_core = 'ARW'
max_dom = 1
start_date = '2024-08-00_03:00:00'
end_date = '2024-08-00_18:00:00'
interval_seconds = 21600
io_form_geogrid = 2
debug_level = 0
/

&geogrid
parent_id = 1
parent_grid_ratio = 1
i_parent_start = 1
j_parent_start = 1
e_we = 32
e_sn = 28
geog_data_res = 'CLsoil'
dx = 5000
dy = 5000
map_proj = 'lambert'
ref_lat = -33.652
ref_lon = -69.399
truelat1 = -33.720
truelat2 = -33.720
pole_lat = 90
pole_lon = 0
stand_lon = -69.291
geog_data_path = '/home/proyecto_mma/DATA/ARCHIVOS_MMA/WRF/geog/'
opt_geogrid_tbl_path = './geogrid/'
/

&ungrib
out_format = 'WPS'
prefix = 'FILE'
/

&metgrid
fg_name = 'FILE'
io_form_metgrid = 2
opt_metgrid_tbl_path = './metgrid'
/
Additionally, here is a portion of my GEOGRID.TBL:

name=SOILCTOP
priority=1
dest_type=categorical
z_dim_name=soil_cat
dominant=SCT_DOM
interp_option = CLsoil:nearest_neighbor
rel_path= CLsoil:SoilType_i1/

Any advice or guidance on how to resolve this issue would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your time and help.

Best regards,
Aurora
 
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