Improve approach to obtain additional python packages needed for some use cases

[georgemccabe]

I learned that the marine_and_coastal use case takes 15 seconds to run, but takes 35-40 minutes in GitHub Actions because it takes an extremely long time to obtain the xesmf package that is needed for that use case. A large portion of the processing time in all of the use cases that have additional packages involves obtaining packages.

Describe the Enhancement

Consider a new approach to getting python dependencies for use cases. A possible solution would be to create a Docker image that installs conda and creates conda environments for each group of package dependencies (i.e. if use case(s) needs X, Y, and Z packages, create an environment and add only those 3 packages to it). We could then create another Docker image used for these tests that is based on the METplus image but also adds the content from the environment image so that they are available for the use case tests. This would greatly reduce execution time in GitHub Actions and also help isolate the environments for the use cases to ensure only the package that we list as dependencies are required.

Time Estimate

~ 2-3 days

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Funding Source

2791541

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