Example test case

The FALL3D distribution includes multiple test cases (benchmark suite) that can be downloaded from the central repository. These cases are used to check the model configuration and installation rather than to perform accurate and realistic simulations for event reconstruction.

Let's run an example case built from the template inside the folder Templates. First, assume the following directory structure:

  • $WORKPATH: path where the example case will be run
  • $BINPATH: path with the FALL3D executable Fall3d.x
  • $FALL3DPATH: path with the FALL3D distribution

Create the run folder and copy the template there:

> mkdir $WORKPATH
> cd $WORKPATH
> cp $FALL3DPATH/Templates/template.inp Example.inp

Two additional input files are required to run this example. The meteorological database can be downloaded from the testsuite repository using the wget command:

> wget https://gitlab.geo3bcn.csic.es/fall3d/test-suite/example/-/raw/d1a704bb0551ff50033f0df3300d70166a7eccf5/Example.wrf.nc

In order to properly read this meteorological file, FALL3D needs a dictionary to decode the variable names in the input file and translate them into the internal variable representation. Samples of different dictionaries are found in the folder Other/Meteo/Tables of the distribution. For this specific example case, you will need the WRF.tb dictionary:

> cp $FALL3DPATH/Other/Meteo/Tables/WRF.tbl .

The program is now ready to be executed. You can run FALL3D in serial mode using the model configuration defined in the input file Example.inp with the following command:

> $BINPATH/Fall3d.x Example.inp All

Notes:

  • Depending on your installation, the executable filename Fall3d.x could be different
  • More input files for testing can be downloaded from the Benchmark suite repository

Checking the results

If the run was successful, you should obtain a log file Example.Fall3d.log with the end message:

  Number of warnings : 0
  Number of errors   : 0
  Task FALL3D        : ends NORMALLY

The results of the simulation are stored in the output netCDF file Example.res.nc. For a quick view of the output file, you can use the ncview tool (available here) to graphically display netCDF files:

> ncview Example.res.nc