Versions Compared

Old Version 2

changes.mady.by.user Sandor Kertesz

Saved on

compared with

New Version Current

changes.mady.by.user Iain Russell

Saved on

Key

  • This line was added.
  • This line was removed.
  • Formatting was changed.


Section


Column
width75%

What is ODB?

ODB (Observation DataBase) is a file-based database-like system developed at ECMWF to store and retrieve large volumes of meteorological observational and feedback data efficiently for use within the IFS.

Currently, ODB

...

files come in two flavours:

  • ODB-1 (the original hierarchical table format capable of running in a parallel environment within IFS)

  • ODB-2 (a

...

  • flat format with a modern API used for archiving in MARS)

...

  • .

ODB/SQL

Data from

...

ODB can be extracted using the ODB/SQL query language

...

, which is generally a small subset of SQL with some useful extensions.

The home of the ODB software is ODB API Home.

The ODB icon

Metview automatically recognizes both ODB-1 and ODB-2

...

formats and assigns the

...

same icon to

...

both types of file in the user interface:

Image Removed

...

Image Added

Examining ODB contents

The meta-data and data

...

ODB data can be directly visualised in various plot types via the ODB Visualiser icon

Image Removed

or if only an ODB/SQL query needs to be run

...

contents of an ODB can be inspected with the ODB Examiner, which can be started up from the user interface (right-click examine on the icon).

Image Added

Filtering ODB

Filtering ODB data is performed with the ODB Filter icon, which can perform an ODB/SQL query

...

resulting in a new ODB:

Image Added

Visualising ODB

The ODB Visualiser icon is used to visualise (and optionally filter) ODB data using various techniques and plot types:

Image Added

Image Added

Image Added

Image Added

Image Added


Script language support

Metview provides full support for ODB from its Macro and Python interfaces. The full list of available functions can be found on the ODB Functions page. For elaborated examples please study the tutorials and see the Gallery.


Column


Panel
titleBGColor#EAEAEA
titleTutorials

ODB Tutorial

Using ODB with Metview


Panel
titleBGColor#EAEAEA
titleFunctions

ODB Functions


Panel
titleBGColor#EAEAEA
titleOther resources

Gallery

From Macro/Python the icon can be called as odb_visualiser().

A tutorial about using ODB in Metview can be found here.

What is ODB?

FLEXPART is a Lagrangian particle dispersion model developed and used by a scientific community. It can be driven by meteorological input data from a variety of global and regional models including ECMWF analyses and forecasts.

The home of the software is https://www.flexpart.eu/.

What Metview version do I need for FLEXPART?

Note

The minimum Metview version to use is 5.0.

How to use FLEXPART with Metview?

Metview provides a high level interface to prepare input data for FLEXPART from ECMWF's MARS archive (via the FLEXPART Prepare icon),

Image Removed

perform a FLEXPART simulation (via the FLEXPART Run icon)

Image Removed

and visualise the resulting output files. For the visualisation the gridded outputs in FLEXPART's custom binary format are converted to GRIB (click here for details).

Tutorial

There is a tutorial available on the use of FLEXPART with Metview explaining both the basics of the FLEXPART simulations and the related visualisation techniques. The snapshots below showcase a few of the FLEXPART plot types that can be generated with Metview:

Image RemovedImage RemovedImage Removed

Image RemovedImage Removed

What FLEXPART version is supported in Metview?

Note

Please note that the Metview interface was written for version 9.02 of FLEXPART.

FLEXPART at ECMWF

FLEXPART is installed at ECMWF to be directly used from within Metview. You can find out more about it here.

FLEXPART outside ECMWF

...