MetOffice / MetOffice/CSET

Synoptic obs extraction doesn't account for model coordinate cutouts

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bug
Dominant language
Python
Stars
33
Forks
19
Avg merge
1d 22h
Merged PRs (30d)
30

Description

### Describe the bug

Originally reported by Kirsty:

> Basically, I'm using a cutout subarea which I originally defined in model relative coordinates but as I had USE_WMO_STATION_NUMBERS=False the fetch_obs task was trying to retrieve all the MetDB obs within my cutout subarea but failing as it was looking for obs near the equator! Once I changed SUBAREA_EXTENT to be in real world coords, the fetch_obs task worked. So it would be useful if the Help panel could be updated to say that SUBAREA_EXTENT needs to be in real world coords if comparing with synoptic obs.

### How to reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behaviour:

1. Run CSET with synoptic observations enabled, USE_WMO_STATION_NUMBERS=False, and a cutout of a rotated pole model done using SUBAREA_TYPE=model.
2. Observe the model crashes due to not finding any observations, as it looks for them in the wrong place.

### Expected behaviour

Even when using model coordinates to cut out a domain, the correct observations should be fetched.

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

Research direction

Start with the fetch_obs task and the SUBAREA_EXTENT/SUBAREA_TYPE=model handling described in the reproduction steps. Reproduce the rotated-pole cutout with USE_WMO_STATION_NUMBERS=False and compare model-coordinate and real-world-coordinate behavior. Done means synoptic observations are fetched from the correct geographic area for model-coordinate cutouts, and the Help panel states the coordinate requirement if that remains part of the fix.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
data
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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