Radx2Grid Occasionally Doesn't Produce Output

Hello to the LROSE Developers and Community,

I’ve been using the “Blaze” release of LROSE through Docker on my mac to process a bunch of Level-II NEXRAD files from the publicly available NOAA dataset available on Amazon Web Services.

I wrote a bash script to do the processing which takes a raw level-II NEXRAD file, feeds it to RadxConvert, then passes the CF-Radial file generated to Radx2Grid. Occasionally the output of Radx2Grid will be nothing, yet no errors are produced even if the debugging flag (-d) is set. Let me know if you’d like me to post the code.

I am not sure if this could be considered a “bug”, a more serious issue, or if Radx2Grid is actually doing what it is supposed to do, while the particular level-II files that cause this issue are the culprit.

Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your attention and time.

Best,

Marian

Hi Marian,
Thanks for your question. I suspect it may indeed be the particular level-II files, but it should still produce an error or notification when it fails. I’m not sure if this forum can handle attachments that big, so if you could put a sample Level-II file that doesn’t work and your script somewhere to download and post a link here we can take a look and try to help debug. Thanks!

-Michael

Hey Michael,

Thanks very much for the response. I’ve been trying to process the files again to find an example of one that produces no output from the Radx2Grid command.

Somehow, I’ve been unable to replicate this issue and am finding success in processing nearly every file from the list of files that were previously causing me problems. The only ones that don’t make it through the workflow I do in fact get an error message about.

I am processing the last batch of files today and if I do indeed run into the the no output issue i’ll be sure to post a file here that you’ll be able to take a look at. Here is a Google Drive link for the bash script if you or anyone else reading this could make use of it in work.

Thanks for your patience and attention to this matter. I appreciate your time.

Best,

Marian

Hello Again to the LROSE Community,

I have returned with a similar issue as the one which magically resolved itself in my last post on this forum.

I am trying to process a single NEXRAD level-II file using RadxConvert and Radx2Grid. I am able to produce an output of the file when the Radx2Grid parameter file has the interpolation option set to “INTERP_MODE_PPI”, which is what I using during my last batch of files.

Now I would like to use the interpolation option “INTERP_MODE_CART” to create some 3D volume netcdf files using Radx2Grid. Yet when I switch to this option, and run the Radx2Grid command, I am saddened to find no output directory or netcdf file, as well as no error messages (i.e. the Radx2Grid command runs and completes).

Here are some materials that could help to replicate my issue:

NEXRAD Level-II file
LROSE commands I am using
RadxConvert parameter file (default - no changes)
Radx2Grid parameter file (few changes, primarily to x,y,z gridding options. Let me know if you would like specifics and/or don’t see my modifications in the parameter file)

Thank you to everyone for your attention, time, and guidance. I appreciate any help that anyone can provide.

Best,

Marian

I would like to add that dropping the x and y grid dimension sizes from 801x801 (one change I made to the Radx2Grid params file) to the default 400x400 fixed my issue.

For my purposes, this is sufficient, but perhaps for someone else it wouldn’t be. Could this be a limitation of the Radx2Grid command? or Perhaps a bug? Or maybe its related to my machine (Mid-2014 MacBook Pro, OS X Mojave 10.14.6)?

Best,

Marian