OceanVal

Just press Continue on each page, and tick agreement when asked, to run the validation.

Feel free to customize the validation by tweaking the options.

You should start seeing validation results in a couple of minutes.

How do you want your validation sample?

Concise and fast Detailed, but slower

Choose a model and its variables

Each model is downloaded from a different ESGF data server. Choose one model, and one to three of its variables: only those files are downloaded.

Model	Sea surface temperature	Surface nitrate	Sea surface salinity

This creates a directory called oceanval_demo, with data in it. Remove it when you have finished with the demo.

This shows how OceanVal works. It is not how to validate a climate model.

Only one year, 2010, is matched up here. A climate model is not meant to reproduce the weather of any particular year, so judging how well one does needs many years of output, not a single one.

Tell OceanVal about your simulation files

Which directory stores your simulation data? Required

How many subdirectories below this can you find your files? Required

Skip file names containing (separate words with a space) Only include file names containing (separate words with a space)

What spatial coverage do you need for your observational data?

OceanVal will select appropriate datasets. These can be modified later.

Tell OceanVal where you want output to be saved

Where do you want matchups and validation output to be saved?

What do you want the matchup script to be called

This is created to produce a fully reproducible version of this validation that can be run from the command line. You will not need to run this, and the file is saved for completeness.

Do you have your own observational data?

A recipe describes a set of observations once, so that you can use it again in any matchup by name, like recipe={"chlorophyll": "occci"}, which is one of OceanVal's own. Your recipes are kept in .oceanvalrc files: in the directory you run OceanVal from, for that directory only, or in your home directory, for everywhere. Which kind of data is the recipe for?

OceanVal has just identified whether the units are the same or whether the observational data needs to be adjusted to be in the model units. Please check the unit conversions below before proceeding.

Each observation becomes observation × Multiply by + Add before it is compared with the model. Multiply by rescales the units: roughly 1.025 turns µmol/kg into mmol/m3. Add shifts the zero point: 273.15 turns °C into K. Leave both boxes empty when no conversion is needed, and fill in any row OceanVal could not work out. Its suggestions are in red and bold. The units must be confirmed, with the tick box beside Continue, before the matchup starts.

Gridded datasets

OceanVal's gridded recipes, and your own gridded data (netCDF).

Matchup	Simulation variable	Simulation units	Observation variable	Observation units	Multiply by	Add

Point datasets

OceanVal's ICES recipes, and your own point data. Your own point data is csv files, which have no units, so it is up to you to make sure they match the simulation's.

Matchup	Simulation variable	Simulation units	Observation variable	Observation units	Multiply by	Add

OceanVal matches each observation in these point datasets to the simulation output on the same day, as their point_time_res includes day. But the simulation output for their variables is coarser than daily: monthly, or once every few days. So most of their observations may find no simulation output on the same day, and be left out of the matchups.

Matching them by year and month instead compares each observation with the simulation output for its month. OceanVal suggests that, in red and bold, but you can choose for all of them at once, for each one, or keep them as they are.

Change all of them to Change each one, in the table below Keep them as they are

Variable	Dataset	Time resolution	Matched by now	Match observations by

Where are the matchups located?

Which directory do you want to build the report in?

Datasets

Which datasets do you want to validate?

Gridded

Point

Do you only want to validate a subregion?

Longitude –

Latitude –

Which regional summaries do you want?

Transect

Do you want to validate against gridded datasets along a transect?

Options

Do you want simulation and observations to always use fixed colour scales?

What additional report formats do you want?

PDF Word

Do you want a zipped version of report files?

How detailed do you want the report to be?

Which depth bins do you want for vertical validation?

Point datasets validated through the water column are summarised in these depth ranges. Leave To empty on the deepest bin for everything below it. Observations outside every bin are left out.

Bin From (metres) To (metres) Remove

Simulations

Give each simulation a short name, which labels it in the comparison’s figures and tables, and the directory of its validation: the directory validate() built its report in (its out_dir, or, in this window, the directory chosen for the matchups and the report). That directory holds:

oceanval_report, the validation report, which the comparison links to;
oceanval_results, which the comparison reads: annual_mean for the maps and biases, temporals for seasonality, and regionals for the regional summaries, if the report has them.

Only gridded datasets validated in at least two of the simulations are compared.

Row	Simulation name	Validation directory
1
2
3
4
5

Which directory do you want to build the comparison in?

These simulation variables are time means, and their times look like the end of the period each mean covers: a day's mean dated 00:00 the next day, or a month's dated 00:00 on the 1st of the next month. If so, matched up as they are, a January mean is compared with February's observations, and the year's last mean falls in the next year and is left out.

Their files have no time bounds to say for certain, so OceanVal does not shift anything unless you choose it. It suggests shifting every simulation time back one day, in red and bold, so that each mean falls in the period it covers.

Shift the simulation's times back one day Keep the times as they are

Variable	Files	Times now	Shifted	Why they look like ends

The following mapping will be assumed between variables and simulation files

Variable	Years	Simulation variable	Observation source	File pattern to be used	Time resolution	Dates

Not the right files?

Change which file names are used. OceanVal will read the simulation again with them and return to the recipes, to check the simulation variables, keeping your choices where they still apply.

Skip file names containing (separate words with a space) Only file names containing (separate words with a space)

Your matchup script is saved

Nothing has been matched up and no report has been built. To do both later, open a terminal, activate the environment OceanVal is installed in, and run:

Script file:

Validate an ocean model

Choose a model and its variables

The model output

Do you have your own observational data?

Gridded datasets

Point datasets

Gridded

Point

The following mapping will be assumed between variables and simulation files

Not the right files?

Your matchup script is saved

Files in a random subdirectory

How does OceanVal identify simulation files to matchup?

Files left over from earlier OceanVal sessions

Leftover files