[1.8x - 1.11x] Kerbal Weather Project (KWP) v1.0.0

[FleshJeb 1,226]

Spectacular job on this.

I did some reading and noted that the U.S. Standard Atmosphere assumes a CO2 concentration of 317 PPM. Do you have the ability and interest in re-running the simulation at the current 410 PPM? I'd love to see some graphs of the difference. Perhaps over a timespan of 30 years instead of 5?

[cmet24 136]

On 2/3/2021 at 6:05 PM, FleshJeb said:

Spectacular job on this.

I did some reading and noted that the U.S. Standard Atmosphere assumes a CO2 concentration of 317 PPM. Do you have the ability and interest in re-running the simulation at the current 410 PPM? I'd love to see some graphs of the difference. Perhaps over a timespan of 30 years instead of 5?

@FleshJeb Thanks! That's an excellent point you make regarding CO₂ concentrations. Looking through the MPAS code it appears that the shortwave and longwave radiation schemes use CO₂ concentration values from  2005, citing the 2007 IPCC report.  In the code the CO₂ concentration is set to 379 ppm.

Unlike CO₂, Ozone (O₃ ) is provided from the GFS initialization data, which was retrieved for the year 2017.  Since the O₃ concentrations in the MPAS Kerbin simulation are derived from Earth data there is actually a minimum in ozone concentration over the southern polar region of Kerbin. This actually results in lower stratospheric temperatures, on Kerbin, being cooler over the south pole than the north pole. 

Edited February 6 by cmet24
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[Misguided Kerbal 1,511]

This is an absolutely amazing work you have here! Would I encounter any difficulties if I add this to an existing save?

[Kerminator K-100 406]

1 hour ago, Misguided Kerbal said:

This is an absolutely amazing work you have here! Would I encounter any difficulties if I add this to an existing save?

I didn't have any when I installed it so you should be fine.

[loki130 18]

Wow, this is  pretty cool project. I was wondering if you could comment on the feasibility of doing something like this outside of the context of KSP, on any arbitrary terrain--basically, if I wanted to simulate climate on my own fantasy planet, would this be a sensible approach?. How difficult was the process of getting the model set up and including novel terrain? I also see that you made your own server to run the program--do you think it would possible to do something similar, if much much slower, on a typical home computer?

[WarriorSabe 134]

On 2/14/2021 at 4:59 AM, loki130 said:

Wow, this is  pretty cool project. I was wondering if you could comment on the feasibility of doing something like this outside of the context of KSP, on any arbitrary terrain--basically, if I wanted to simulate climate on my own fantasy planet, would this be a sensible approach?. How difficult was the process of getting the model set up and including novel terrain? I also see that you made your own server to run the program--do you think it would possible to do something similar, if much much slower, on a typical home computer?

Well, not saying anything about the possibility, but a while back I did a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation earlier based on what was posted in that website, and found that it would take aproximately two months to run on my laptop if it did indeed work. So, at the very least, you'll need to be able to have your computer on for several weeks straight, while probably also not using it at all.

[ss8913 260]

after... the most recent, or the 2nd most recent patch, the climatology doesn't seem to work; if I open the window in flight and click WIND and X-WIND, I see valid values for X-WIND, but WIND shows 0 knots at 180 deg, *always*.  It worked before, not sure exactly when it stopped... if I change it from climatology to the static wind model, the wind speed and direction once again shows up.

[cmet24 136]

On 2/16/2021 at 8:01 PM, ss8913 said:

after... the most recent, or the 2nd most recent patch, the climatology doesn't seem to work; if I open the window in flight and click WIND and X-WIND, I see valid values for X-WIND, but WIND shows 0 knots at 180 deg, *always*.  It worked before, not sure exactly when it stopped... if I change it from climatology to the static wind model, the wind speed and direction once again shows up.

@ss8913 Thanks for posting. I caught this issue myself last weekend and just now had time to fix it. This problem with the wind GUI has been resolved in the latest update for KWP (version 1.0.4)

Edited February 21 by cmet24

[cmet24 136]

On 2/14/2021 at 4:59 AM, loki130 said:

Wow, this is  pretty cool project. I was wondering if you could comment on the feasibility of doing something like this outside of the context of KSP, on any arbitrary terrain--basically, if I wanted to simulate climate on my own fantasy planet, would this be a sensible approach?. How difficult was the process of getting the model set up and including novel terrain? I also see that you made your own server to run the program--do you think it would possible to do something similar, if much much slower, on a typical home computer?

@loki130 So you can run a numerical weather model on your laptop. I've run the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model from my own laptop in the past. However, doing so comes with significant limitations.  The main constraint is memory. Memory constraints severely constrain your domain size and model resolution. Swapping out terrain is challenging because it involves not just changing the terrain but a slew of other variables such as land use, vegetation type, green fraction, etc. 

Alternatively, its feasible to run simpler models on a laptop. For example, a simple two-layer quasi-geostrophic (QG) model or barotropic model (see here). Unfortunately, these simple models don't typically consider the effects of terrain. 

Edited February 19 by cmet24

[ItsJustLuci 91]

does this mod add precipitation?

 

[Spaceman.Spiff 523]

3 hours ago, ItsJustLuci said:

does this mod add precipitation?

 

No. 

[cmet24 136]

22 hours ago, ItsJustLuci said:

does this mod add precipitation?

 

@ItsJustLuci So precipitation information is included with the mod, and is available to fellow modders via the API. In space, KWP provides information on precipitation rate. That said, there are no visual effects added by this mod. Rain, snow, etc. won't affect your launches. Precipitation, cloud cover, and visibility are provided via the KWP API mainly so that other modders could utilize the data to design visual effects or incorporate it into their mods.

Edited 9 hours ago by cmet24