[thredds] Thoughts on the FRMC

TDS Folks,

The Forecast Model Run Collection feature of the THREDDS Data Server
is very cool, but of course now that we've been using it, we have some
ideas about how it could be even cooler and we are wondering what the
rest of the community thinks.

Currently the FRMC virtual dataset we use all the time is the  "best
time series" dataset, which yeilds a continuous time series as best it
can, starting from the analysis time of each forecast, taking only
those values up to the analysis time of the next forecast.

Starting from the analysis time (tau=0) is not always "best", however,
because some models initialize from coarser grid models or ingest data
in a way that makes it desirable to wait until the dynamics have
developed a bit.  So for people using these models, their "best" time
series might start at tau=6, 12 or even 24 hours.

So how about having the FMRC create a variety of different continuous
time series, one for each tau in an individual forecast, and call them
best_0hour, best_3hour, best_6hour (or tau_0hour, tau_6hour or
something similar).    In fact, if folks had access to all these
different time series, it would be easy for them to compare to
observed time series to determine which offset time series really WAS
best!

Do others agree that these additional continuous time series would be useful?

Are there other virtual datasets that would also be useful to have
FMRC automatically generate?

Are their datasets that FMRC currently generates that are not useful?
(For example, we have never used anything other than the best time
series dataset, and we can't figure out how the "constant forecast
offset" and "constant forecast date" datasets might be useful)

-Rich
-- 
Dr. Richard P. Signell   (508) 457-2229
USGS, 384 Woods Hole Rd.
Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598



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