Feature #2395 wdir

[JohnHalleyGotway]

Expected Differences

• Do these changes introduce new tools, command line arguments, or configuration file options? [No]
  
  If yes, please describe:
  

• Do these changes modify the structure of existing or add new output data types (e.g. statistic line types or NetCDF variables)? [Yes]
  
  If yes, please describe:
  

• Adds 3 new VL1L2 columns:

  • DIR_ME, DIR_MAE, and DIR_MSE

• Adds 3 new VAL1L2 columns:

  • DIRA_ME, DIRA_MAE, DIRA_MSE

• Adds 12 new VCNT columns:

  • DIR_ME, DIR_MAE, DIR_MSE, and DIR_RMSE plus _BCL and _BCU columns to store the bootstrap CI's.

Note however that the VCNT line type includes columns for bootstrap CI's, but MET does not actually compute them yet. Enhancing it to do so is requested in MET #963.

Pull Request Testing

• Describe testing already performed for these changes:
  
  Manually ran make test and inspected the content of the new columns.

• Recommend testing for the reviewer(s) to perform, including the location of input datasets, and any additional instructions:
  

• Meet to review the following details:

  • Review the code changes, paying particular attention to...
    • the number and names of the new output columns.
    • the computation of anomalous wind direction diffs
    • the handling of "missing" data when the direction is undefined for zero vectors. When zero vectors are encountered, the following type of warning message is written:

WARNING: VL1L2Info::compute_stats() -> Skipping 249 of 934 vector pairs for which the direction difference is undefined.
WARNING: Set the "wind_thresh" and "wind_logic" configuration options to exclude zero vectors.

• Observe this PR testing workflow that ran without error but produced many, many diffs. Download/inspect the diffs to see that they're confined to VL1L2/VAL1L2/VCNT lines.

• Review the description and equations added to the end of Appendix G for accuracy and clarity.

• Do these changes include sufficient documentation updates, ensuring that no errors or warnings exist in the build of the documentation? [Yes]
  Yes, this includes updates to the Point-Stat chapter and Appendix G.

• Do these changes include sufficient testing updates? [Yes]
  New output is produced for many existing unit tests.

• Will this PR result in changes to the test suite? [Yes]
  
  If yes, describe the new output and/or changes to the existing output:
  
  A total of 84 ascii output files are modified:

  • 48 files with a .stat suffix.
  • 13 files with a _vl1l2.txt suffix.
  • 9 files with a _val1l2.txt suffix.
  • 14 files with a _vcnt.txt suffix.

• Please complete this pull request review by [Fri 2/16/24].
  

Pull Request Checklist

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[JohnHalleyGotway]

@ericgilleland and @JohnHalleyGotway met on Feb 14, 2024 to discuss this PR. Some questions:

1. Does it make sense to add output to the VAL1L2 line type? MET Add new wind direction verification statistics for RMSE, Bias, and MAE #2395 requests additions to the VL1L2 and VCNT line types. I added VAL1L2 for consistency, but the question is whether or not wind direction anomaly statistics are useful to compute scientifically.
2. Per @ericgilleland, it may be possible to define parametric confidence intervals, using the von Mises distribution, for these wind direction statistics. That would require the addition of _NCL and _NCU columns in the VCNT line type. But that remains an open question. Recommend delaying for now but consider for the future.

[ericgilleland]

I approve