The input_sounding format

input_sounding is the de-facto text format for idealized vertical profiles in CM1, WRF (em_ideal), and ERF. It is whitespace-separated and has two record types:

• z is above ground level (AGL), not MSL. Files for elevated stations (KABQ at ~1620 m, for example) still start their level block near z = 0.
• Levels are listed in ascending z. The reader will refuse a file whose z column is not monotonically non-decreasing.
• LegacyConnectors converts to SI on read: millibars → pascals, g/kg → kg/kg. Wind and height columns are already SI.
• NaN is a legal qv value and is preserved (some GFS point profiles have no moisture above the mesopause).
• Lines starting with # or ;, and blank lines, are skipped. Inline #/; comments at end-of-line are also stripped.

Worked example

1000.000000     300.000000      14.000000
   50.000000     300.045520      14.000000       0.250000       0.000000
  100.000000     300.108266      14.000000       0.500000       0.000000
  ...

This is the first three lines of the bundled Weisman–Klemp 1982 sounding. The surface line says: 1000 mb (= 100 000 Pa), θ = 300 K, qv = 14 g/kg (= 0.014 kg/kg). The level lines that follow each give height in metres, potential temperature in kelvin, mixing ratio in g/kg, and the two horizontal wind components in m/s.

References

• Weisman, M. L., and J. B. Klemp, 1982: The dependence of numerically simulated convective storms on vertical wind shear and buoyancy. Mon. Wea. Rev., 110, 504–520.
• Bryan, G. H., and J. M. Fritsch, 2002: A benchmark simulation for moist nonhydrostatic numerical models. Mon. Wea. Rev., 130, 2917–2928. (CM1 origin.)
• WRF Users' Guide, ideal.exe section (em_quarter_ss, em_les).