Python Library: hn2016_falwa (v0.6.5)

Compute from gridded climate data the Finite-amplitude Local Wave Activity (FALWA) and flux terms introduced in:

• Huang and Nakamura (2016, JAS)
• Huang and Nakamura (2017, GRL).
• Nakamura and Huang (2018, Science) Atmospheric Blocking as a Traffic Jam in the Jet Stream.
• Neal et al (2022, GRL) The 2021 Pacific Northwest Heat Wave and Associated Blocking: Meteorology and the Role of an Upstream Cyclone as a Diabatic Source of Wave Activity

Package Installation

This current version works in both Python 2.7 and 3.x. Note that since v0.3.0, some functions have backend in Fortran. You will need a fortran compiler (e.g. gfortran) to implement the installation.

Since the package is still being actively developed, please use the develop mode for installation:

git clone https://github.com/csyhuang/hn2016_falwa.git
cd hn2016_falwa
python setup.py develop

To incorporate updates, pull the new version of the code from GitHub by:

git pull

If there are updates in the Fortran modules in the new commits, please re-compile them:

python setup develop -u
python setup develop
pytest # to check if the package can be run properly

Quick start

The jupyter notebook in examples/nh2018_science demonstrates how to compute wave activity and reference states presented in Nakamura and Huang (2018). To make sure the package is properly installed in your environment, run through the notebook after installation to see if there is error.

THe conda environment for running the notebook can be found in environment.yml. To create the conda environment, execute:

conda env create -f environment.yml

Interfaces

There are two interfaces for this library. One is the developer interface; the other is the object-oriented interface, which is a wrapper for the basis functions in the developer interface and also compiled fortran modules. Users are strongly adviced to use only the object-oriented interface.

Object-oriented interface

The object-oriented interface is an easy-to-use interface that takes in the climate field and coordinates as the attributes of an object, and implement the wrapper functions above as methods.

There are two classes with object-oriented interface: QGField and BarotropicField. Please refer to the example/ directory:

Sample Script	Description
nh2018_science/demo_script_for_nh2018.ipynb	Compute wave activity and flux terms in the QG framework presented in Nakamura and Huang (2018, Science). Sample data can be retrieved with download_example.py in the same directory.
simple/oopinterface_example_BarotropicField.ipynb	It reads in a sample datasets "barotropic_vorticity.nc", which contains absolute vorticity field snapsnots from a barotropic decay model (Held and Phillips 1987). It computes both the equivalent-latitude relationship (e.g. Nakamura 1996) and local wave activity (Huang and Nakamura 2016) in a global domain.

Developer Interface

The developer interface contains separate functions that users can alter the inputs more flexibly. Functions are added upon users' request on new functionalities to test hypotheses (also see the test branch). The developer interface consists of 4 types of functions:

• The basis functions are smallest unit of functions that make up the wrapper functions and object-oriented interface.

• The wrapper functions implement particular analysis tasks for published work/manuscripts in preparation

• The utility functions compute general quantities, such as static stability or quasi-geostrophic potential vorticity that are not specific to the finite-amplitude wave theory.

Inquiries / Issues reporting

• If you are interested in using the package, please leave your contact here or email me(csyhuang@protonmail.com) such that I can keep you updated of any changes made.
• If you encounter coding issues/bugs when using the package, please create an Issue ticket.
• If you have scientific questions, please contact Clare S. Y. Huang via email(csyhuang@protonmail.com).