wrfup: WRF Urban Parameters Toolkit

Welcome to the wrfup documentation! A python tool to integrate high-resolution, real-world urban data into WRF (Weather Research and Forcast). It automatically downloads, calculates, and ingests the needed urban fields directly into WRF geo_em files. Using wrfup, users can enhance urban weather simulations with any of the WRF’s urban canopy parameterizations, including SLUCM, BEP, and BEP+BEM.

wrfup logo

Overview

wrfup is a Python tool designed to streamline the urban data preparation of urban climate simulations. It automatically:

  • Downloads urban morphology data like building heights and urban fraction from the state of the art global sources.

  • Calculates the necessary urban fields for WRF, such as URB_PARAM and FRC_URB2D.

  • Ingests these fields directly into WRF’s geo_em files, ensuring a fine representation of urban areas in your simulations.

Workflow Diagram

The following diagram shows how wrfup integrates into the WRF preprocessing workflow:

wrfup workflow

Indices and tables