Add support for MET tc_gen changes in METplus

[DanielAdriaansen]

Describe the New Feature

MET tc_gen went through some major changes for MET-10.0.0-beta3. These changes were requested from multiple users including work being done for #630 and #631. The tc_gen_wrapper needs to be updated to accomodate the MET changes so the work for #630 and #631 can be completed.

The changes to MET can be seen here:
dtcenter/MET#1448
dtcenter/MET#1430
dtcenter/MET#1597
dtcenter/MET#1626

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Issues should represent approximately 1 to 3 days of work.

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Funding Source

7790901 - as per Kathryn's guidance

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Define Related Issue(s)

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• METplus, MET, METdatadb, METviewer, METexpress, METcalcpy, METplotpy

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[JohnHalleyGotway]

For reference, the TC-Gen config files for MET versions 9.1 and 10.0.0 are attached:
TCGenConfig_v9.1.txt
TCGenConfig_v10.0.0.txt

The config file changes are listed below:

• Add "valid_freq" integer.
• Replace "lead_window" dictionary with "fcst_hr_window" dictionary.
• Replace "oper_genesis" dictionary with "oper_technique" string.
• Change default "desc" from "NA" to "ALL".
• Add "init_inc" and "init_exc" arrays.
• Add "basin_mask" array.
• Replace "genesis_window" dictionary with "dev_hit_window".
• Replace "genesis_radius" integer with "genesis_match_radius" and "dev_hit_radius" integers.
• Add "ops_hit_tdiff" integer.
• Add "discard_init_post_genesis_flag" boolean.
• Add "dev_method_flag" and "ops_method_flag" booleans.
• Add "output_flag.genmpr" option.
• Add "nc_pairs_flag" dictionary.
• Add "valid_minus_genesis_diff_thresh" threshold.
• Add "best_unique_flag" boolean.
• Add "basin_file" string.
• Add "nc_pairs_grid" string.

[georgemccabe]

Thanks for the info. This should be pretty straightforward to with the new changes to how the wrappers set env vars in MET config files. The changes are in branch feature_768_met_config ( #768 ). I have already verified that the output from the develop branch matches the output from this branch, but we are waiting for @DanielAdriaansen 's changes to the wrapped MET config files and documentation. The changes for this issue would be much easier with those changes available, so we could either 1) Create a PR, approve the changes, and create a separate issue for the MET config and documentation updates or 2) Create a branch off of the feature branch for #768 for this work.

[DanielAdriaansen]

Would #780 work? I thought that PR was meant to move this functionality into METplus faster than all of the work in #768.

If not, I could also re-prioritize my work and start on #768 which might be easier than having a separate PR and/or branch from #768.

[georgemccabe]

#780 is waiting for PR review (#792) by @j-opatz to get the MET_CONFIG_OVERRIDES functionality into develop faster than the other issue. This needs to happen before you can use that feature for your work-around. #768 involves changing the wrappers to set environment variables for MET config files (starting with METPLUS_) in a new and improved way that is much more efficient and easy to add support for new variables. This is what would make this issue much easier to tackle.

[DanielAdriaansen]

I will start work ASAP on #768. Probably day or two I would imagine? Seems to make the most sense to me.

[georgemccabe]

I have made the first pass at refactoring the wrapper. I still need to:

• Update the parm/met_config/TCGen_wrapped file to use the new environment variables
• Update the parm/use_cases/met_tool_wrapper/TCGen use case to use the new METplus config variables
• Add unit tests for TCGen wrapper and add more tests for new MET config handling functions
• Update the documentation to include the new config variables in the glossary and python wrappers section