Q. What does the 'T' mean in resolution?
A. The 'T' refers to the spectral truncation of the model. A spectral method, based on spherical harmonic expansion is used in the model, for example to compute some horizontal derivatives. The 'T' means the model uses a 'triangular' truncation in spectral space to decide the retained spherical harmonics. The number following the 'T' is the highest retained wave number. For more information on the spectral truncation and resolution of the model, the IFS documentation is recommended reading.
Q. How do I know the grid from from the 'T' number?
A. This depends on the grid used. For medium and high resolutions, the model uses a 'reduced Gaussian grid' with reduced numbers of gridpoints along a latitude circule towards the poles. Full quadratic and linear grids are also possible. There is a table available which shows the correspondence between spectral resolution and lat/lon resolution.
Q. How do I know what the memory requirements of the model are?
Q. How fast does the model run?
Q. What is the difference between IFS/OpenIFS model versions?
A. The OpenIFS model is based on the main IFS code though without some functionality such as data assimilation. The first OpenIFS version was based on cycle 38 release 1 (known as CY38R1).
Information on scientific & technical changes between cycles releases is available on the main ECMWF website.
Q. What format is the model output?
A. The model writes its output in GRIB format using WMO FM-92 GRIB edition 1 and edition 2 messages. ECMWF provides the GRIB_API software for handling and manipulating grib data using either command line tools and a programming library for C, Fortran and Python.
For plotting GRIB data, ECMWF provides the MetView software, which is freely available under the Apache license.
Note that the OpenIFS model outputs a mix of GRIB edition 1 & 2 messages in a single file. Unlike MetView, not all GRIB software available on the Internet can read such files and extra steps may be necessary to separate the messages before use.