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Per #2558, update the user's guide chapter about TC-Diag
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JohnHalleyGotway committed Jun 19, 2023
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2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion data/config/TCDiagConfig_default
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//
// Data censoring and conversion
// May be set separately in each diag_data "field" entry
// May be set separately in each data "field" array entry
//
// censor_thresh = [];
// censor_val = [];
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6 changes: 3 additions & 3 deletions docs/Users_Guide/met-tc_overview.rst
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Expand Up @@ -9,14 +9,14 @@ Introduction

The purpose of this User's Guide is to provide basic information to the users of the Model Evaluation Tools - Tropical Cyclone (MET-TC) to enable users to apply MET-TC to their tropical cyclone datasets and evaluation studies. MET-TC is intended for use with model forecasts run through a vortex tracking software or with operational model forecasts in Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecast (ATCF) file format.

The following sections provide an overview of MET-TC and its components, as well as basic information on the software build. The required input, including file format and the MET-TC are discussed followed by a description of the TC-DLand tool, TC-Pairs, and TC-Stat tools. Each section covers the input, output and practical usage including a description of the configuration files. This is followed by a short overview of graphical utilities available within the MET-TC release.
The following sections provide an overview of MET-TC and its components, as well as basic information on the software build. The required input, including file format and the MET-TC are discussed followed by a description of the TC-DLand, TC-Diag, TC-Pairs, TC-Stat, TC-RMW, and RMW-Analysis tools. Each section covers the input, output and practical usage including a description of the configuration files. This is followed by a short overview of graphical utilities available within the MET-TC release.

MET-TC components
=================

The MET tools used in the verification of Tropical Cyclones are referred to as MET-TC. These tools are shown across the bottom of the flowchart in :numref:`overview-figure`. The MET-TC tools are described in more detail in later sections.

The TC-DLand tool is used to generate a gridded file that determines the location of coastlines and islands, and is used as input to the TC-Pairs tool to determine the distance from land of a particular track point. The TC-Pairs tool matches pairs of input model data and BEST track (or any reference forecast) and calculates position errors. The TC-Stat tool uses the TC-Pairs output to perform filter and summary jobs over the matched pair dataset. The TC-Gen tool performs a categorical analysis for tropical cyclone genesis forecasts. The TC-RMW tool performs a coordinate transformation of gridded model data, centered on the storm's location. The RMW-Analysis tool aggregates TC-RMW output across multiple cases.
Tropical cyclone forecasts and observations are quite different than numerical model forecasts, and thus they have their own set of tools. These consist of TC-DLand, TC-Diag, TC-Pairs, TC-Stat, TC-Gen, TC-RMW, and RMW-Analysis. The TC-DLand module calculates the distance to land from all locations on a specified grid. This information can be used in later modules to eliminate tropical cyclones that are over land from being included in the statistics. TC-Diag converts gridded model output into cylindrical coordinates for each storm location, calls Python scripts to compute storm-relative diagnostics, and writes ASCII output to be read by TC-Pairs. TC-Pairs matches up tropical cyclone forecasts and observations and writes all output to a file. In TC-Stat, these forecast / observation pairs are analyzed according to user preference to produce statistics. TC-Gen evaluates the performance of Tropical Cyclone genesis forecast using contingency table counts and statistics. TC-RMW performs a coordinate transformation for gridded model or analysis fields centered on the current storm location. RMW-Analysis filters and aggregates the output of TC-RMW across multiple cases.

Input data format
=================
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Output data format
==================

The MET package produces output in four basic file formats: STAT files, ASCII files, NetCDF files, and Postscript plots. The MET-TC tool produces output in TCSTAT, which stands for Tropical Cyclone - STAT. This output format consists of tabular ASCII data that can be easily read by many analysis tools and software packages, making the output from MET-TC very versatile. Like STAT, TCSTAT is a specialized ASCII format containing one record on each line. Currently, the only line type available in MET-TC is TCMPR (Tropical Cyclone Matched Pairs). As more line types are included in future releases, all line types will be included in a single TCSTAT file. MET-TC also outputs a NetCDF format file in the TC-DLand tool, as input to the TC-Pairs tool.
The MET package produces output in four basic file formats: STAT files, ASCII files, NetCDF files, and PostScript plots. The MET-TC tool produces output in TCSTAT, which stands for Tropical Cyclone - STAT. This output format consists of tabular ASCII data that can be easily read by many analysis tools and software packages, making the output from MET-TC very versatile. Like STAT, TCSTAT is a specialized ASCII format containing one record on each line. Currently, the only line type available in MET-TC is TCMPR (Tropical Cyclone Matched Pairs). As more line types are included in future releases, all line types will be included in a single TCSTAT file. The TC-DLand, TC-Diag, TC-RMW, and RMW-Analysis tools also write NetCDF files containing a variety of output data types.
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