Program RIP is an alternative plotting utility program for the MM5 modeling system. RIP (which stands for Read/Interpolate/Plot) is a Fortran program that invokes NCAR Graphics routines for the purpose of visualizing output from the Fourth and Fifth Generation versions of the PSU/NCAR Mesoscale Model (MM4/MM5) System. It has been under continuous development since 1991, primarily by Mark Stoelinga at both NCAR and the University of Washington. You can use RIP to plot almost all of the output from the MM5 programs (TERRAIN_DOMAINx, REGRID_DOMAINx, RAWINS_DOMAINx, LITTLE_R_DOMAINx, MMINPUT_DOMAINx, LOWBDY_DOMAINx, and MMOUT_DOMAINx). The RIP program makes shaded plots and the overlaying of more than two fields much easier. Since it is based on NCAR Graphics it requires the NCAR Graphics library to run. A good piece of news for MM5 users, NCAR now provides the NCAR Graphics library used by MM5 programs for free.

A good source of information for the RIP programs is the RIP documentation.

Where to Start?

To start, go to MM5V3 directory and download the RIP program tar file from NCAR's ftp site. Once you have it on your machine, type the following to unzip and untar it:

gunzip RIP.TAR.gz
tar -xvf RIP.TAR

After this, you should see a program directory RIP/ created in your working directory. cd to this directory:

cd RIP

and you should see the following files and subdirectories listed:

ls -l

-rwxr-xr-x   1 mesouser users       6931 Jan 27 13:42 CHANGES
drwxr-xr-x   2 mesouser users       8192 Jan 27 13:51 Diff
drwxr-xr-x   2 mesouser users       8192 Jan 27 13:51 Doc
-rwxr-xr-x   1 mesouser users       7498 Dec 13 18:40 Makefile
-rwxr-xr-x   1 mesouser users       2721 Dec  5 18:23 README
-rwxr-xr-x   1 mesouser users       2531 Feb 11 16:36 color.tbl
-rwxr-xr-x   1 mesouser users     347079 Oct 31  2000 psadilookup.dat
-rwxr-xr-x   1 mesouser users       2868 Jan 28 13:39 rip_sample.in
-rwxr-xr-x   1 mesouser users         99 Oct 31  2000 ripdp_sample.in
drwxr-xr-x   2 mesouser users       8192 Jan 27 13:52 src
-rwxr-xr-x   1 mesouser users    1123227 Jan 17 11:41 stationlist
-rwxr-xr-x   1 mesouser users         96 Oct 31  2000 tabdiag_sample.in
-rw-r--r--   1 mesouser users         20 Jul 10  2001 tserstn.dat
 

Read the README file in the directory.

Now you are ready to work with RIP.
 

How to Run RIP?

 Before you compile RIP, make sure that you either type

    setenv NCARG_ROOT /usr/local/ncarg
       (note: location of NCAR Graphics library may vary on your machine)

 or include the above line in your .cshrc file.
 

1. Type the following to compile RIP:

make
    This will display a list of machines on which RIP has been tested.

make your-machine >& make.out &

If it is successful,  an number of executables will be created and linked to the top directory as shown here:

-rw-r--r--   1 mesouser users          30307 Mar 15 08:57 make.out
lrwxrwxrwx   1 mesouser users          7 Mar 15 08:56 rip@ -> src/rip
lrwxrwxrwx   1 mesouser users         11 Mar 15 08:56 ripcomp@ -> src/ripcomp
lrwxrwxrwx   1 mesouser users          9 Mar 15 08:56 ripdp@ -> src/ripdp
lrwxrwxrwx   1 mesouser users         13 Mar 15 08:56 ripinterp@ -> src/ripinterp
lrwxrwxrwx   1 mesouser users         11 Mar 15 08:56 ripshow@ -> src/ripshow
lrwxrwxrwx   1 mesouser users         12 Mar 15 08:56 showtraj@ -> src/showtraj
lrwxrwxrwx   1 mesouser users         11 Mar 15 08:56 tabdiag@ -> src/tabdiag
lrwxrwxrwx   1 mesouser users         11 Mar 15 08:56 upscale@ -> src/upscale
 

rip	RIP is a post-processing program for the PSU/NCAR mesoscale.  The name "RIP" stands for Read/Interpolate/Plot. The program is intended for use with  hydrostatic or nonhydrostatic mm4v8 output, mm5v0 output, mm5v1 input or output, or mm5v3 input or output (including pre-processor p-level data).  The data must first be converted to the appropriate format expected by this program, using the program RIPDP.
ripcomp	This program reads in two rip data files and compare their contents.
ripdp	RIPDP (which stands for RIP Data Preparation) is a data preparation program that reads in data from the PSU/NCAR mesoscale modeling system and makes data files appropriate for input to the RIP data analysis and visualization program.
ripinterp	This program reads in model output (in rip-format files) from a coarse domain and from a fine domain, and creates a new file which has the data from the coarse domain file interpolated (bi-linearly) to the fine domain.  The header and data dimensions of the new file will be that of the fine domain, and the case name used in the file name will be the same as that of the fine domain file that was read in.
ripshow	This program reads in a rip data file and prints out the contents of the header record.
showtraj	Sometimes, you may want to examine the contents of a trajectory position file. Since it is a binary file, the trajectory position file cannot simply be printed out. showtraj, reads the trajectory position file and prints out its contents in a readable form.  When you run showtraj, it prompts you for the name of the trajectory position file to be printed out.
tabdiag	If fields are specified in the plot specification table for a trajectory calculation run, then RIP produces a .diag file that contains values of those fields along the trajectories. This file is an unformatted Fortran file, so another program is required to view the diagnostics. tabdiag serves this purpose.
upscale	This program reads in model output (in rip-format files) from a coarse domain and from a fine domain, and replaces the coarse data with fine data at overlapping points. Any refinement ratio is allowed, and the fine domain borders do not have to coincide with coarse domain grid points.

2.  setenv RIP_ROOT  your-RIP-directory
    example: setenv RIP_ROOT  /home/user/MM5V3/RIP
 
 

3.  Prepare data for use in RIP
     Since a very large number of data files are created, it is a good idea to place them in a directory of their own:
    mkdir DATA

    Edit ripdp_sample.in to set up some basic data parameters.

    ripdp [-n namelist-file] model-data-set-name data-file-1 data-file-2 data-file-3 ...
 

where:
	namelist-file	namelist (ripdp_sample.in) file you have just edit
	model-data-set-name	RIP data that you are preparing. In the example below we will write all RIP data files to the DATA directory we created.
	data-file-1	MM5 data files you want to view with RIP

  example: ripdp   -n ripdp_sample.in   DATA/MMOUT   ../MM5/Run/MMOUT_DOMAIN1
 

    This command will produce some standard output,  if successful, the last few lines of output will typically look something like:

          Finished reading data for this time.

             *******   No more datasets   *******

             ====================================
              We're outta here like Vladimir !!
             ====================================

    Under your DATA directory, you should now have a list of newly created RIP data files.
 
 

4. Create graphical output:

    Edit rip_sample.in to set up some basic data parameters, as well as the descriptions of the plots you want to generate.

    ripdp [-f ] model-data-set-name rip-execution-name
 

where:
	model-data-set-name	RIP data that you prepared in step 3.
	rip-execution-name	File containing the plot information (rip_sample.in in this case)

  example: rip   -f  DATA/MMOUT   rip_sample.in
 

    This command will produce an output file, rip_sample.out.  If your successful, the last few lines of this file will typically look something like:
 

             ====================================
              We're outta here like Vladimir !!
             ====================================
 

A graphical output file called 'rip_sample.cgm', is create, which is an NCAR Graphics formatted plot file. To view the meta file generated by RIP, one must use the NCAR Graphics utility 'idt' (more information can be found on the man page: man idt), i.e.,

idt rip_sample.cgm &

You may convert the gmeta file to a number of other graphic formats. For example, to convert to black-white postscript file, you can use the command

ctrans -d ps.mono rip_sample.cgm > rip_sample.ps

'-d ps.color' will allow you to translate color plots. For more information, check man page on 'ictrans'.
 

Sample plots from MM5 model output for SOC case:

Land Use
Terrain fields (contour ; color filled)
Overlay of temperature, sea level pressure and wind on sigma level b1
Overlay of temperature, geopotential height and wind on various pressure levels
Cross-section plot of potential vorticity, potential temperature and wind
Skew-T plot

Miscellanies:

For a brief  introduction to the RIP program, you can also view the bi-annual tutorial slides.

Trouble Shooting:
 

If you have questions, ask mesouser.