New AWIPS Configurations for GFS FV3 Parameters

As of June 16, 2020 NCEP changed the Vertical Velocity and Total Precipitation parameters in the GFS FV3 suite that come over NOAAPort. More detailed information about the changes can be found here. At Unidata we've made configuration changes to our EDEX system to ingest the correct parameters and display them in the CAVE menu. The GFS parameter changes are:

• GFS Vertical Velocity parameter changed from VVEL (pascals/s) to DZDT (m/s)
• GFS Precip Accumulations changed from hourly/3-hourly/6-hourly accumulation to total accumulation over the forecast period

CAVE users

For those who connect to the Unidata cloud EDEX server, you will just need to remove the local caveData directory and restart CAVE:

1. Exit out of current CAVE sessions
2. Remove the caveData directory on your machine. This is located:
   • Windows: C:/Users/[your-user]/caveData
   • Mac: /Users/[your-user]/Library/caveData
   • Linux: /home/[your-user]/caveData
3. Start a new CAVE session connect to 'edex-cloud.unidata.ucar.edu'

EDEX users

For those who have a local EDEX running, we have put together a zip file that will update your configurations. The perl script will back-up the affected files that need to be updated and then copy over and replace with the new files. Once the updated files are in place, restart EDEX.

1. Download zip file to your EDEX server:
   https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/downloads/awips2/GFS_Updates-18.1.1-20200717.zip
   OR
   wget https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/downloads/awips2/GFS_Updates-18.1.1-20200717.zip
2. Unzip downloaded file
unzip GFS_Updates-18.1.1-20200717.zip
3. Run the updateEDEX.pl
perl updateGFS.pl
4. Stop EDEX
edex stop
5. Start EDEX
edex start

Note: Since the GFS only comes in every 6 hours, it may take a few hours to see the new products.

Summary of EDEX changes:

• Update Models menu to point to new GFS bundles for the Precip Accumulation and Vertical Velocity
• Update the styleRules to show parameters in the correct units and colortables
• Update the post process precipitation accumulation to calculate total accumulation

Verify Changes

Load Models > GFS 20km > 500MB Vertical Velocity



Notice the legend is now 'Geometric Vertical Velocity' with units of (m*s^-1).


Load Models > GFS 20km > Precip Accumulation

Notice the change from hourly/3-hourly/6-hourly accumulation to total accumulation over the forecast period.

For AWIPS support contact: support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu