OpenIFS

OpenIFS provides academic and research institutions with an easy-to-use version of the ECMWF IFS (Integrated Forecasting System). OpenIFS provides the forecast capability of IFS (no data assimilation), supporting software and documentation. OpenIFS has a support team at ECMWF for technical assistance but limited resources for detailed scientific assistance.

About OpenIFS provides more information about the model.

How to run openIFS:

First check openifs availability on your platform. Currently openIFS is available on UIO HPC (abel.uio.no) only.

module avail openifs

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /cluster/etc/modulefiles ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
openifs/38r1v04(default)

If nothing is returned, it is likely openifs is not available. If you think it should, then contact us (drift@uio.no).

To load a given  openifs version:

module load openifs/38r1v04

We suggest you specify the version you wish to use to avoid any problems if we install a new default version (as it is important to stick to the very same version for your  simulations).

When loading openifs the following environment variables are defined:

• OIFS_CYCLE: ECMWF cycle such as 38r1 (version 38, revision 1)
• OIFS_HOME: directory where openIFS has been installed; this can be used to check openIFS sources
• OIFS_DATA: contains openIFS static input data. Even if you use your own compiled version of openIFS, it is NOT necessary to download these files again.
• OIFS_EXAMPLES: directory where all openIFS examples are stored. If you wish to run one of these examples see our dedicated section on running tutorials.
• OIFS_COMP: compilers used to create openIFS executables. We currently use intel compilers.
• OIFS_BUILD: type of build. It triggers a set of compiler options when building openIFS. Currently set to "opt"
• OIFS_GRIB_API_DIR: GRIB-API version used by openIFS to encode/decode GRIB files
• MARS_LSM_PATH: land sea mask used
• EMOS_VERSION: EMOS version (compiled with GRIB-API support). EMOS is used for interpolation routines.
• EMOS_HOME: directory where EMOS has been installed.
• BUFR_TABLES: bufrtables used for decoding/encoding BUFR (not used in the forecast model)
• CREX_TABLES: crex tables used for encoding/decoding CREX data.

For building openIFS, we use interl compilers:

module list
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:
  1) use.own                3) openmpi.intel/1.6.1    5) hdf5/1.8.9_intel       7) grib_api/1.12.3        9) udunits/2.2.16        11) intelmpi.intel/4.1.3
  2) intel/2011.10          4) python2/2.7.3          6) netcdf.intel/4.2.1.1   8) perlmodules/5.10_2    10) intel/2013.sp1.1      12) openifs/38r1v04

openIFS examples:

There are 3 examples currently available:

cd $OIFS_EXAMPLES

ls

ei     osloctm         t21test

T21 simple test:

Choose a directory of your choice and copy this simple test:

mkdir -p $HOME/openifs/examples

cd $HOME/openifs/examples

cp -R $OIFS_EXAMPLES/t21test .

cd t21test

ls

fort.4  ICMGGepc8  ICMGGepc8INIT  ICMGGepc8INIUA  ICMSHepc8  ICMSHepc8INIT  ifsdata  job  namelists  README  ref_021_0144

./job_uio

This is a very short and simple example and it can be run interactively (./job_uio).

All the input fields are already available and by executing job_uio, you run  ECMWF openIFS forecast model. 

Output fields generated by openIFS are:

ICMSHepc8+000000

ICMGGepc8+000000

SH means Spherical harmonics and GG Gaussian grid. These files are in  GRIB-2 format.

You may convert these GRIB files to netCDF using cdo; for instance on sverdrup:

module load cdo/1.6.5.1

cdo -t ecmwf -f nc copy ICMSHepc8+000000 ICMSHepc8+000000.nc

For more information, see ECMWF How to convert OpenIFS outputs to netCDF.