WRF-Hydro in a Data Services

Framework
Alexander Maestre, Barbara Rasaiah,
JongKwan Kim, Youssef Loukili
(UCAR Associate Scientists)
3rd CUAHSI Conference on Hydroinformatics
July 15-17 2015
The University of Alabama National Water Center

WRF-Hydro System
A community-based coupling architecture designed to provide:
1)

An extensible multi-scale & multi-physics land-atmosphere modeling

capability for conservative, coupled and uncoupled assimilation & prediction
of major water cycle components

2)

Able to estimate water flow, velocity, and water elevation across spatial and
temporal scales

3)

A robust framework for land-atmosphere coupling studies

Examples of Data Services for Water Resources

WRF and WRF-Hydro

Source: The WRF-Hydro Modeling System: System Overview and Status Update (Gochis et al. January 30 2015)

Proposed Integration of WRF-Hydro with a Data Service

WRF-Hydro

Water Quality Model

Biological Model

Evaluation Services

QC
value added
data

Any Data Service

Internal clients

External clients

WRF-Hydro Modeling Requirements

Fast access to historical and real-time hydrologic
meteorological data, metadata, and geospatial information
to support forecasts and analyses
Incorporation of a choice of useful sources and formats
Ingestion of real-time data assimilation products
Hydrologic ingestion of ensemble weather forecasts
A framework designed for flexible calibration

Ideal Data Service Capabilities

Define and implement standard interfaces that handle the
heterogeneous nature of the data
In situ surface weather and water budget observations, hydrometric
observations, and observations through surveys and networks (e.g.:
snow, soil moisture, CoCoRaHS)
Water management observations (e.g.: reservoir storage and release,
diversions and consumptive-use). Able to generate numerical weather
prediction models based on analysis and forecasts
Able to handle and display geospatial information (e.g.: digital elevation
models, land-use and land-cover data, hydrographic and bathymetric
data, climatology data)

Generic Data Service for WRF-Hydro

WRF-Hydro
forcing data

hydrographic
data

routing grid

land surface
grid

Data Service

QC

web
services

value added
data

metadata
registry

data store

GIS

OUTPUT 1

reports

web maps

GIS

Phone Apps

Forecaster

OUTPUT 2

Public

Data Partners

http://www.caee.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/CE397Flood/Visual/WRFHydro.pdf

WRF-Hydro Executable
Makefile in Run Folder

IO/code

Land Surface Model

1 - Program

Noah_hrldas_driver

module_sf_noahlsm

module_Noahlsm_utility

2 3 4 5 7 8

module_hrldas_netcdf_io

module_sf_urban

module_model_constants

module_sfcdif_wrf

Key
4
module_sf_urban

Utility_routines

Module ID
Module Name

Modules being called by this module

8
module_date_utilities

9
Kwm_string_utilities

Future of WRF-Hydro
WRF-Hydro expands the domain of
hydrological models covering the CONUS and
OCONUS areas of the U.S.
Promote the development of tools for user
access

Potential Data Services for WRF-Hydro

BEFORE RUN
UNCOUPLED
Archive

Third Party
Agency /
Partner

Third Party
Agency /
Partner

Operational
Data Store
Extracts

Third Party
Agency /
Partner

NetCDF
Files

Update
Database
Management
System

Data Warehouse

NetCDF
Files
Load

WRF-Hydro

Potential Data Services for WRF-Hydro

DURING RUN

WRF-Hydro
Change input
parameters

Emergency
Phone call

Temporary
Operational
Data Store
Automatically adjust
input parameters

Data
Assimilation
Tool

Manual
Modification

Other Data
Services

Other
Models

Compare
Compare current run
with output from other results with
other models
data services

Potential Data Services for WRF-Hydro

AFTER RUN
WRF-Hydro
Evaluation
Services
Internal data
users
Data
partners

Operational
Data Store

Data Access
Utilities

Messaging
services

Users

Archive

Geospatial
Data Server

Web mapping
services

General
Public

Web feature
services

Emergency
Services

Conclusions
WRF-hydro requires integration with data services in all
stages including before, during, and after program runs
Data users must be continually engaged in identifying
new applications of the outputs and the technology to
deliver data products
In the first phase, the priority should be focused on
generation of model inputs and tools for evaluation of
results
Future phases can integrate additional resources and
technology to fully leverage WRF-Hydro data products
with partners and internal users

Alexander.Maestre@noaa.gov
Barbara.Rasaiah@noaa.gov
JongKwan.Kim@noaa.gov
Youssef.Loukili@noaa.gov