WxFactory

Research numerical weather model. The name is inspired by Richardson’s Fantastic Forecast Factory

Documentation list

Full documentation is available here.

Requirements

WxFactory was built for Python 3.11 (at least). It also requires an MPI implementation.

Python packages

  • Python version at least 3.11

  • numpy Scientific tools for Python

  • scipy Python-based ecosystem of open-source software for mathematics, science, and engineering

  • sympy Python library for symbolic mathematics

  • mpi4py Python interface for MPI

  • pybind11 Library to expose C++/Python types to each other

  • netcdf4 Python/NumPy interface to the netCDF C library (MPI version)

  • matplotlib A python plotting library, making publication quality plots

  • setuptools To compile C++/CUDA portions of WxFactory

  • cupy [Somewhat optional] If you want to be able to run on GPU (can install cupy-cuda11x or cupy-cuda12x for precompiled module)

Other libraries

  • netcdf4 Library to handle netCDF files. There is an MPI version of it, if you want parallel output

  • sqlite To be able to store solver stats.

Optional

  • cartopy A cartographic python library with matplotlib support for visualisation

  • tqdm Progress bar when generating matrices

  • snakeviz A tool for visualizing profiling output

To build documentation

  • Sphinx Library to build the documentation

  • myst-parser Library to parse markdown files for documentation

Python packages can be installed with the package management system of your Linux distribution or with pip.

Running WxFactory

# With the cubed sphere as a grid:
mpirun -n 6 ./WxFactory config/case6.ini

# With the 2D cartesian grid:
./WxFactory config/gaussian_bubble.ini

Profiling WxFactory

You can generate an execution profile when running WxFactory by adding the --profile flag to the main command. For example:

mpirun -n 6 python3 ./WxFactory --profile config/case6.ini

This will generate a set of profile_####.out files, one for each launched process, that can be viewed with snakeviz. You need to be able to open a browser window from the terminal to use this command:

snakeviz ./profile_0000.out

Configuration options

The configuration parameters available to put in the file passed as an argument to WxFactory are listed here.

If you find this project useful, please cite:

Gaudreault, S., Charron, M., Dallerit, V., & Tokman, M. (2022). High-order numerical solutions to the shallow-water equations on the rotated cubed-sphere grid. Journal of Computational Physics, 449, 110792. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2021.110792

Contents:

Indices and tables

API

common

compiler

geometry

init

integrators

Different methods to step forward in time.

output

pde

precondition

rhs

solvers

Different methods to solve a system of equations.

tests

wx_mpi

A set of functions and classes to simplify MPI usage.