Forcing Files

Author

Gorton, Bec (Environment, Hobart)

Dummy Files

When you are first creating your model you can use dummy files to get started before your proper forcing files are ready. Its often a good idea to use constant temp, salt and zero current initially anyway as it simplifies your model.

You will need to edit these files and change the number of boxes and layers and change the geometry attribute to the name of your bgm file.

tempdummy.cdf
saltdummy.cdf
hydrodummy.cdf

Once you have edited these you will have to run ncgen to convert the human readable cdf file to the binary nc format.

eg:

ncgen -o saltdummy.nc saltdummy.cdf

File structure

Current Forcing File Structure

Temperature and Salinity File Structure

Construction of files

At present many of the hydro files are constructed using a two stage process.

Stage 1: Flux per face

The first stage calculates the flux per face. These are a series of Matlab scripts that must be run on a CSIRO linux machine (they reference many CSIRO matlab libraries and assume shared folders are present).

https://wiki.csiro.au/display/Atlantis/Matlab+-+Hydro

Stage 2: Flux per box

The second stage is using a program called HydroConstruct. This is a C program written by Beth Fulton and maintained by Bec Gorton.

Questions about Hydro Files

The following page lists questions from people generating their hydro files and the answers that Beth or Bec have provided. If you have any questions please read these before emailing.

Hydro FAQ