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General requirements
Encoding format
- Participating Centres are expected to produce output fields in WMO GRIB2 data format and with consistent units. For more information please refer to Guide to the WMO Table Driven Code Form.
Units
- All fields shall use units as defined in WMO GRIB2 manual
Output frequency
- The model output steps should be between 1 and 12 hour
Missing values
- Bitmaps shall be used to indicate missing values (i.e. Soil temperature (st) shall be coded using a bitmap, because there is no model output over the sea)
Grid and resolution
- The fields have to be provided on a regular latitude‐longitude grid at the resolution that is best matching the native resolution of the direct model output.
- Grids are defined in GRIB2 using an accuracy of 1/1000000 (one millionth) of a degree.
- If several limited areas will be provided they should be merged into one larger area on a regular lat-lon grid, with a missing value indicator in the grid-points not covered.
GRIB2 encoding
All data must be encoded following the required rules described below to achieve fully compliant LC-WFV format from all centres.
Encoding software
ECMWF makes available a GRIB decoding library (ecCodes) for the benefit of the WMO community. The ecCodes can be freely downloaded from here and the documentation can be found here. EcCodes provides a simplified access to GRIB2 headers through a set of virtual keys documented here
Encoding details
The complete WMO compliant GRIB2 definitions of all wave parameters are linked in the page Wave verification
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For more general information about GRIB2 format please refer to WMO Manual on Codes .
Encoding details
Parameters
- 10 metre U wind component
- 10 metre V wind component
- Mean wave direction
- Mean zero-crossing wave period
- Peak wave period
- Significant height of combined wind waves and swell
General encoding
Specific details which should be encoded in GRIB2 sections 1 and 4:
| Section 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Octets | Key name | Value | Description |
| 6-7 | centre | X | WMO Centre's code (table below) |
| 8-9 | subCentre | X | |
| WMO Sub-Centre's code if needed (table below) | |||
| 10 | tablesVersion | 19 | The latest WMO table |
| 20 | productionStatusOfProcessedData | 0 |
Operational products
Production data | ||
| 1 |
| Test data | |||
| 21 | typeOfProcessedData | 0 | Analysis products |
| 1 | Forecast products |
| Section 4 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Octets | Key name | Value | Description |
| 8-9 | productDefinitionTemplateNumber | 0 | Analysis and Forecast products (instantaneous) (Analysis or forecast at a horizontal level or in a horizontal layer at a point in time (grib2/tables/17/4.0.table)) |
WMO Centre codes
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The codes below are based on WMO Manual 306 - WMO Codes
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. Each organization must be uniquely identified by its WMO code. If necessary to distinguish between two organizations using the same WMO code the Sub-Centre one which differs must be provided.
| Organisation | Acronym | WMO Centre code | WMO |
|---|
| subCentre code | Centre acronym*1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather, UK | ECMWF | 98 | N/A | ecmf |
| Met office, UK | UKMO | 74 | N/A | egrr |
| Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, USA | FNMOC | 58 | N/A | fnmo |
| Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canada | ECCC | 54 | N/A | cwao |
| National Centres for Environmental Prediction, USA | NCEP | 7 | N/A | kwbc |
| Météo France, France | METFR | 84 | N/A | lfpw |
| Deutscher Wetterdienst, Germany | DWD | 78 | N/A | edzw |
| Bureau of Meteorology, Australia | BoM | 1 |
| N/A | ammc | |||
| Laboratoire D'Océanographie Physique et Spatiale, France | LOPS | 84 | 202 | lops |
| Japan Meteorological Agency, Japan | JMA | 34 | N/A | rjtd |
| Korea Meteorological Administration, Republic of Korea | KMA | 40 | N/A | rksl |
| Puertos del Estado, Spain | PRTOS | 214 | N/A | lemm |
| Danmarks Meteorologiske Institut, Denmark | DMI | 94 | N/A | ekmi |
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, New Zealand | NIWA |
| 204 | N/A | niwa | ||
Det Norske Meteorologiske Institutt, Norway | METNO | 88 | N/A | enmi |
Servicio de Hidrografía Naval, Servicio Meteorológico, Argentina | SHNSM | 41 | N/A | sabm |
New Zealand MetService | NZMS |
| 69 | N/A | nzkl |
| Servizio Meteorologico dell'Aeronautica Militare, Italy | METEOAM |
| 80 | N/A | cnmc |
Remarks:
*1 in ECMWF's eCcodes
Example of the validity type encoding
Instantaneous
This example describes an instantaneous field valid on 20120103 00Z from a forecast starting on 20120101 00Z (time step=48 hours) .
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| Time ( instantaneous ) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start of forecast ( section 1 ) | |||||
Octets | values | Meaning of values | Grib_api values | ||
| 12 | Significance of Reference Time | 1 | Start of forecast | ||
| 13-14 | Year (four digits) | 2012 | year of start of forecast | dataDate=20120101 dataTime=0
| |
| 15 | Month | 01 | month of start of forecast | ||
| 16 | Day | 01 | day of start of forecast | ||
| 17 | Hour | 00 | hour of start of forecast | ||
| section 4 e.g. template 4.1 | |||||
| 18 | Indicator of unit of time range | 1 | Hour | ||
| 19-22 | Forecast time | 48 | Forecast step | stepType=instant, step=48 | |
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parameter | Sample file |
|---|---|
10 metre U wind component | WAVE_165.128_1x1.grb2wave.10u.grib2 |
10 metre V wind component | WAVE_166.128_1x1.grb2wave.10v.grib2 |
| Mean wave period based on second moment | WAVE_221.140_1x1.grb2wave.mp2.grib2 |
| Mean wave direction | WAVE_230.140_1x1.grb2wave.mwd.grib2 |
| Peak wave period | WAVE_231.140_1x1.grb2wave.pp1d.grib2 |
Significant height of combined wind waves and swell | WAVE_229.140_1x1.grb2 |
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