Create a Python visualization image for WRF output and define plotting script(s) for Hurricane Matthew test case

[jaredalee]

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Create sample Python visualization script(s) to accompany the Hurricane Matthew test case and then be containerized. Plotting a few WRF fields and some verification results (using results of #49) will likely be useful for demonstration.

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[jaredalee]

I have written a Python script to make some plots of WRF output from the Hurricane Matthew case, testing it on WRF output I generated outside of any container. Next I need to work on containerizing the script and the relevant Python environment.

[jaredalee]

I just uploaded the main Python script, another Python script with necessary functions, and a README to https://github.com/NCAR/i-wrf/tree/feature/50-python-plotting/use_cases/Hurricane_Matthew/Visualization. There may be a few more modifications that get made to the scripts, but they're functional as long as the directory where the wrfout files live is provided on the command line.

[JohnHalleyGotway]

Met on Sept 9, 2024 for a working meeting to make progress.

Considered where the Python visualization functionality should live. Options are:

• Could provide a light-weight, stand-alone wrf-vis image to plot the WRF output.
• Or could call these plotting scripts via the METplus container.

For the latter, we'd need to add a Dockerfile for METplus to pull a tagged version of METplus, layer on dependencies for METplotpy, and the run the WRF visualization scripts via the UserScript (depends on Cartopy).

Although rather than doing this in the I-WRF repository, perhaps METplus itself should provide this fully integrated METplus environment? Consider updating the dtcenter/metplus Docker repository (https://hub.docker.com/r/dtcenter/metplus) to provide images tagged as:

• vX.Y.Z to contain all METplus wrappers, MET, METdataio, METcalcpy, METplotpy
  • What about METviewer and METexpress?
• vX.Y.Z-slim to contain only MET and METplus Wrappers
• Think more about naming conventions.
• @georgemccabe will write this up as a METplus image (Enhancement: Provide Docker images that contain all METplus components dtcenter/METplus#2682)

Based on directory structure in branch feature/40-build-wrf-container, recommend placing this METplus Dockerfile in docker/METplus/Dockerfile.

For the time being, this new Dockerfile will pull the tagged METplus image along with the METplus Analysis tools. Once a "fully-loaded" METplus image is actually available, revise the logic of this Dockerfile.

Also recommend stripping out as much content as possible from this image to keep it lean.

[georgemccabe]

@jaredalee, can we close this issue since the changes from #66 were merged? Or should we include plotting of MET output as part of this issue?

[jaredalee]

@georgemccabe, in the issue description above as currently written, we mention that some plots of the METplus stats are envisioned to be part of this issue. So either we should tweak the issue description to focus solely on the WRF output plots and close this issue (along with potentially creating a new issue specific to plots of METplus output), or keep it open until the METplotpy script is considered done-enough for the purposes of this Matthew case and then committed. It doesn't matter much to me which way we go, but it is always nice to be able to close an issue.