Installing WRF 4.2.1 on Ubuntu LTS 20.04

Installing WRF 4.2.1 on Ubuntu LTS 20.04

Pratiman, 28 July 2020

6 min read.

The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model is a mesoscale numerical weather prediction system utilized worldwide for operational forecasts and research purposes.

Here is the short version of the installation of WRF 4.2.1 on an Intel-based i7 (12 core) Linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS system. It will be helpful to the beginners who want to test WRF before implementing over an HPC.

Installing the pre-requisites:

sudo apt install csh gfortran m4 mpich libhdf5-mpich-dev libpng-dev libnetcdff-dev netcdf-bin ncl-ncarg build-essential

Install Jasperlib:

wget https://www.ece.uvic.ca/~frodo/jasper/software/jasper-1.900.29.tar.gz
tar xvf jasper-1.900.29.tar.gz 
cd jasper-1.900.29/
./configure --prefix=/opt/jasper-1.900.29
make
sudo make install

If there is a compilation error then following fix maybe implemented (Thanks to Lena Marie Müller): sed -i 's/char *optstr/const char *optstr/g' src/libjasper/jpg/jpg_dummy.c

Get the WRF Source Code:

wget https://github.com/wrf-model/WRF/archive/v4.2.1.tar.gz
tar xvf v4.2.1.tar.gz
cd WRF-4.2.1/

Installing WRF 4.2.1

export NETCDF=/usr
export NETCDF_classic=1
./configure

Output:

checking for perl5... no
checking for perl... found /usr/bin/perl (perl)
Will use NETCDF in dir: /usr
HDF5 not set in environment. Will configure WRF for use without.
PHDF5 not set in environment. Will configure WRF for use without.
Will use 'time' to report timing information
$JASPERLIB or $JASPERINC not found in environment, configuring to build without grib2 I/O...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please select from among the following Linux x86_64 options:

  1. (serial)   2. (smpar)   3. (dmpar)   4. (dm+sm)   PGI (pgf90/gcc)
  5. (serial)   6. (smpar)   7. (dmpar)   8. (dm+sm)   PGI (pgf90/pgcc): SGI MPT
  9. (serial)  10. (smpar)  11. (dmpar)  12. (dm+sm)   PGI (pgf90/gcc): PGI accelerator
 13. (serial)  14. (smpar)  15. (dmpar)  16. (dm+sm)   INTEL (ifort/icc)
                                         17. (dm+sm)   INTEL (ifort/icc): Xeon Phi (MIC architecture)
 18. (serial)  19. (smpar)  20. (dmpar)  21. (dm+sm)   INTEL (ifort/icc): Xeon (SNB with AVX mods)
 22. (serial)  23. (smpar)  24. (dmpar)  25. (dm+sm)   INTEL (ifort/icc): SGI MPT
 26. (serial)  27. (smpar)  28. (dmpar)  29. (dm+sm)   INTEL (ifort/icc): IBM POE
 30. (serial)               31. (dmpar)                PATHSCALE (pathf90/pathcc)
 32. (serial)  33. (smpar)  34. (dmpar)  35. (dm+sm)   GNU (gfortran/gcc)
 36. (serial)  37. (smpar)  38. (dmpar)  39. (dm+sm)   IBM (xlf90_r/cc_r)
 40. (serial)  41. (smpar)  42. (dmpar)  43. (dm+sm)   PGI (ftn/gcc): Cray XC CLE
 44. (serial)  45. (smpar)  46. (dmpar)  47. (dm+sm)   CRAY CCE (ftn $(NOOMP)/cc): Cray XE and XC
 48. (serial)  49. (smpar)  50. (dmpar)  51. (dm+sm)   INTEL (ftn/icc): Cray XC
 52. (serial)  53. (smpar)  54. (dmpar)  55. (dm+sm)   PGI (pgf90/pgcc)
 56. (serial)  57. (smpar)  58. (dmpar)  59. (dm+sm)   PGI (pgf90/gcc): -f90=pgf90
 60. (serial)  61. (smpar)  62. (dmpar)  63. (dm+sm)   PGI (pgf90/pgcc): -f90=pgf90
 64. (serial)  65. (smpar)  66. (dmpar)  67. (dm+sm)   INTEL (ifort/icc): HSW/BDW
 68. (serial)  69. (smpar)  70. (dmpar)  71. (dm+sm)   INTEL (ifort/icc): KNL MIC
 72. (serial)  73. (smpar)  74. (dmpar)  75. (dm+sm)   FUJITSU (frtpx/fccpx): FX10/FX100 SPARC64 IXfx/Xlfx

Enter selection [1-75] : 34
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Compile for nesting? (1=basic, 2=preset moves, 3=vortex following) [default 1]: 

Configuration successful! 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
testing for fseeko and fseeko64
fseeko64 is supported
------------------------------------------------------------------------
...

Open configure.wrf and edit:

You can either use graphical interface or command line. If you want to you use command line, then go for nano editor. To edit use following commands:

nano configure.wrf

Edit here:

 LIB_EXTERNAL    = \
                      -L$(WRF_SRC_ROOT_DIR)/external/io_netcdf -lwrfio_nf -L/usr/lib -lnetcdff -lnetcdf

Once done with the editing, use Ctrl+O to write/save the edits and Ctrl+X to exit.

Now, compile the code:

./compile -j 2 em_real 2>&1 | tee compile.log

Output:

--->                  Executables successfully built                  <---
 
-rwxrwxr-x 1 wrf wrf 40691640 Jul 30 12:35 main/ndown.exe
-rwxrwxr-x 1 wrf wrf 40572760 Jul 30 12:35 main/real.exe
-rwxrwxr-x 1 wrf wrf 40048888 Jul 30 12:35 main/tc.exe
-rwxrwxr-x 1 wrf wrf 44609360 Jul 30 12:35 main/wrf.exe
 
==========================================================================

Installing the WPS:

cd ../
wget https://github.com/wrf-model/WPS/archive/v4.2.tar.gz
tar xvf v4.2.tar.gz
cd WPS-4.2/

export WRF_DIR=../WRF-4.2.1/
export JASPERLIB=/opt/jasper-1.900.29/lib/
export JASPERINC=/opt/jasper-1.900.29/include/

./configure

Output:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please select from among the following supported platforms.

   1.  Linux x86_64, gfortran    (serial)
   2.  Linux x86_64, gfortran    (serial_NO_GRIB2)
   3.  Linux x86_64, gfortran    (dmpar)
   4.  Linux x86_64, gfortran    (dmpar_NO_GRIB2)
   5.  Linux x86_64, PGI compiler   (serial)
   6.  Linux x86_64, PGI compiler   (serial_NO_GRIB2)
   7.  Linux x86_64, PGI compiler   (dmpar)
   8.  Linux x86_64, PGI compiler   (dmpar_NO_GRIB2)
   9.  Linux x86_64, PGI compiler, SGI MPT   (serial)
  10.  Linux x86_64, PGI compiler, SGI MPT   (serial_NO_GRIB2)
  11.  Linux x86_64, PGI compiler, SGI MPT   (dmpar)
  12.  Linux x86_64, PGI compiler, SGI MPT   (dmpar_NO_GRIB2)
  13.  Linux x86_64, IA64 and Opteron    (serial)
  14.  Linux x86_64, IA64 and Opteron    (serial_NO_GRIB2)
  15.  Linux x86_64, IA64 and Opteron    (dmpar)
  16.  Linux x86_64, IA64 and Opteron    (dmpar_NO_GRIB2)
  17.  Linux x86_64, Intel compiler    (serial)
  18.  Linux x86_64, Intel compiler    (serial_NO_GRIB2)
  19.  Linux x86_64, Intel compiler    (dmpar)
  20.  Linux x86_64, Intel compiler    (dmpar_NO_GRIB2)
  21.  Linux x86_64, Intel compiler, SGI MPT    (serial)
  22.  Linux x86_64, Intel compiler, SGI MPT    (serial_NO_GRIB2)
  23.  Linux x86_64, Intel compiler, SGI MPT    (dmpar)
  24.  Linux x86_64, Intel compiler, SGI MPT    (dmpar_NO_GRIB2)
  25.  Linux x86_64, Intel compiler, IBM POE    (serial)
  26.  Linux x86_64, Intel compiler, IBM POE    (serial_NO_GRIB2)
  27.  Linux x86_64, Intel compiler, IBM POE    (dmpar)
  28.  Linux x86_64, Intel compiler, IBM POE    (dmpar_NO_GRIB2)
  29.  Linux x86_64 g95 compiler     (serial)
  30.  Linux x86_64 g95 compiler     (serial_NO_GRIB2)
  31.  Linux x86_64 g95 compiler     (dmpar)
  32.  Linux x86_64 g95 compiler     (dmpar_NO_GRIB2)
  33.  Cray XE/XC CLE/Linux x86_64, Cray compiler   (serial)
  34.  Cray XE/XC CLE/Linux x86_64, Cray compiler   (serial_NO_GRIB2)
  35.  Cray XE/XC CLE/Linux x86_64, Cray compiler   (dmpar)
  36.  Cray XE/XC CLE/Linux x86_64, Cray compiler   (dmpar_NO_GRIB2)
  37.  Cray XC CLE/Linux x86_64, Intel compiler   (serial)
  38.  Cray XC CLE/Linux x86_64, Intel compiler   (serial_NO_GRIB2)
  39.  Cray XC CLE/Linux x86_64, Intel compiler   (dmpar)
  40.  Cray XC CLE/Linux x86_64, Intel compiler   (dmpar_NO_GRIB2)

Enter selection [1-40] : 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Configuration successful. To build the WPS, type: compile
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Open configure.wps and edit:

To edit use following commands:

nano configure.wps

Edit here:

WRF_LIB         =       -L$(WRF_DIR)/external/io_grib1 -lio_grib1 \
                        -L$(WRF_DIR)/external/io_grib_share -lio_grib_share \
                        -L$(WRF_DIR)/external/io_int -lwrfio_int \
                        -L$(WRF_DIR)/external/io_netcdf -lwrfio_nf \
                        -L$(NETCDF)/lib  -lnetcdf -lnetcdff

Compile the WPS

./compile 2>&1 | tee compile.log

Output

ls -rlt

lrwxrwxrwx 1 wrf wrf    23 Jul 30 12:46 geogrid.exe -> geogrid/src/geogrid.exe
lrwxrwxrwx 1 wrf wrf    21 Jul 30 12:46 ungrib.exe -> ungrib/src/ungrib.exe
lrwxrwxrwx 1 wrf wrf    23 Jul 30 12:46 metgrid.exe -> metgrid/src/metgrid.exe

Done!!!. Welcome to WRF!

⇠ Panel or Facet plots from NetCDF4

WRF surface plots using Python ⇢