For 30-meter resolution urban land use (only for CONUS)

Step 1: Download landuse data from http://gisdata.usgs.net/website/MRLC/viewer.php. Either of the 1992 or the 2001 data sets may be used, though the correct code for converting the urban categories to the categories used by the UCM should be run in step 3, below. After selecting an area to download, make sure to select GeoTIFF format in the "Request Summary Page" by clicking on "Modify Data Request". Previously, the data were available in BIL format, which removed the need for format conversions in step 2; however, BIL format appears to no longer work.
Step 2: After downloading the data, unpacking the archive should yield a directory with a .tif file and a .tfw file, among others. In order for the information in the GeoTIFF file to be useful, the .tif image must be converted into the binary format used by the WPS. This conversion can be accomplished using the GDAL translation tool, gdal_translate, (http://gdal.org; pre-compiled on the classroom machines as /wrfhelp/SOURCE_CODE/gdal-1.8.1/apps/gdal_translate) by running the command 
         > gdal_translate -of ENVI foo.tif data.bil
where foo.tif is the name of the GeoTIFF image that was downloaded in Step 1. The output format "ENVI" is a simple binary raster format that matches the format used by geogrid. After converting the GeoTIFF to a binary file, the resulting data.bil file must be renamed to 00001-ncols.00001-nrows, where ncols is the number of columns (in i5.5 format) and nrows is the number of rows (also in i5.5 format) in the image; these values should have been printed to the screen when the gdal_translate program was run.
Step 3: Re-map the categories onto categories that are defined in LANDUSE.TBL. If only urban categories are required (for use, perhaps, with the UCM in WRF), this may be accomplished using the code for 1992 data or the code for 2001 data (pre-compiled on the classroom machines as /wrfhelp/SOURCE_CODE/getcat-2001). In general, either of these codes may be modified to re-map the categories as necessary.
Step 4: Create an "index" metadata file for the data. In the directory created by unpacking the land use data, a .tfw file should also exist. The last two lines in this file give the location of the north-west corner of the data tile, which is used in the index file for variables known_lat and known_lon. If this location is given as (x,y) coordinates, in meters, then the this code (available on the classroom machines as /wrfhelp/SOURCE_CODE/convert_albers) may be used to convert to (latitude, longitude), which is required by the index file. 
         type=categorical
         category_min=31
         category_max=33
         projection=albers_nad83
         dx=30.0
         dy=30.0
         known_x=1.0
         known_y=4161.0             # <- edit
         known_lon=-77.673554       # <- edit
         known_lat=39.582862        # <- edit
         truelat1=29.5
         truelat2=45.5
         stdlon=-96.0
         wordsize=1
         missing_value=0.
         row_order=top_bottom
         tile_x=5449                # <- edit
         tile_y=4161                # <- edit
         tile_z=1
         units="category"
         description="3-category NLCD 2001 urban"
Step 5: Add an entry to GEOGRID.TBL file specifying the path to the directory with the data tile and index file. This entry might look something like: 
         ===============================
         name=LANDUSEF
                 priority=2
                 dest_type=categorical
                 interp_option = default:nearest_neighbor
                 abs_path      = default:/mmmtmp/duda/49019336/      # The path to your new land use data
         ===============================



For high-resolution topography data (global)

Step 1: Download topography data from http://seamless.usgs.gov/ After selecting an area to download, make sure to select BIL format in the "Request Summary Page" by clicking on "Modify Data Request".
Step 2: After downloading the data, unpacking the archive should yield a directory with a .bil file and a .hdr file. The .hdr file will give the number of rows and columns in the data tile; using these dimensions, the .bil file should be renamed to 00001-ncols.00001-nrows, where ncols is the number of columns (in i5.5 format) and nrows is the number of rows (also in i5.5 format). Since ncols and nrows can have at most 5 digits, the data tile cannot have a dimension larger than 99999.
Step 3: Create an "index" metadata file for the data. Also in the directory, a .blw file should exist. This file gives the (i,j) location of the upper-left corner of the data tile. Convert these coordinates to a latitude and longitude (if they aren't already given as such) and use them in the index file. 
         type=continuous
         projection=regular_ll
         missing_value=0.
         dx=0.0002777
         dy=0.0002777
         known_x=1.0
         known_y=3820.0             # <- edit
         known_lon=-79.358497       # <- edit
         known_lat=40.256750        # <- edit
         wordsize=2
         row_order=top_bottom
         endian=little
         signed=yes
         tile_x=4632                # <- edit
         tile_y=3820                # <- edit
         tile_z=1
         units="meters"
         description="topography"
Step 4: Add an entry to GEOGRID.TBL file specifying the path to the directory with the data tile and index file.