ACCESS-AD: single-level "helicity" fields

A number of raw and post-processed NWP products are available as outputs from the Australian Community Climate Earth-System Simulator (ACCESS) suite of Numerical Weather Prediction models which are run routinely by the Bureau National Operations Centre (NOC). This document describes the content of the ACCESS-C ADELAIDE (version APS3) IDY25404.APS3.helicity.slv.YYYYMMDDHH.HHH.surface and IDY25424.APS3.helicity.slv.YYYYMMDDHH.HHH.surface series of products.

For background information about ACCESS please refer to the top-level ACCESS NWP technical data documentation page.

If you require further information or assistance about ACCESS NWP products contact the Bureau's Real-time Data Services Section.

Model summary

ACCESS-C ADELAIDE covers the Adelaide domain, has a resolution of about 1.5 km and is run four times per day (00Z, 06Z, 12Z & 18Z basetimes) out to a forecast hour (HHH) of +36 (+42 for 18Z). This model is nested in the ACCESS-G model and consists of both an assimilation and forecast component.

NWP data filename convention

All NWP files in this product series have names that conform to the following convention:

IDY25404.APS3.helicity.slv.YYYYMMDDHH.HHH.surface.grb2 or

IDY25424.APS3.helicity.slv.YYYYMMDDHH.HHH.surface.grb2

where

YYYYMMDDHHBase-date of model run in UTC time. YYYY = year, MM = month, DD = day, HH = hour
HHHForecast hour. A HHH of 000 is the analysis time-step.

Horizontal grid geometries

Variant
[IDY code]
Resolution
[Lon x Lat]
Domain limits
[W to E, S to N (Lon x Lat grid points)]
Parameters
[NC Vars]
IDY25404
0.014 by 0.013 130.000 to 142.029, -39.500 to -29.470 (892 x 744) All
IDY25424
0.014 by 0.013 130.000 to 142.029, -39.500 to -29.470 (892 x 744) All

Please note that

  • Latitude values in GRIB and NetCDF files are ordered North to South while longitude values are ordered West to East.
  • Longitudes always lie in the range 0.0 to 360.0 degrees. Longitudes can be transformed to lie between -180 and +180 degrees by subtracting 360 degrees from any longitude values greater than 180.

Time steps

Forecast hours of single-level fields:
1 to 36 by 1

Parameters

The following fields are included in this product series. Note that the "G2 d.c.n" table column refers to a field's GRIB2 'discipline'.'parameterCategory'.'parameterNumber' metadata. For more information see GRIB2 format notes.

Single-level fields

G2 d.c.n NetCDF var Steps G2 Units NC Units Description
0.7.15 max_updraft_helicity All m2 s-2 m2 s-2 Maximum updraft helicity
0.7.15 min_updraft_helicity All m2 s-2 m2 s-2 Minimum updraft helicity

Explanation of steps column terms

AllParameter available at all time-steps
All but stepsParameter available at all time-steps except as specified
hhh...Parameter available from fhr onward

Notes on specific NWP file-formats

For technical notes about the GRIB2 encoding of ACCESS data, please refer to GRIB2 format notes. For technical notes about the NetCDF4 encoding of ACCESS data, please refer to NetCDF format notes.

Appendix A - Extended Field Descriptions

Extended description of single-level fields

G2 d.c.n NetCDF var Detailed description
0.7.15 max_updraft_helicity Maximum (over a time window) updraft helicity over a 2km to 5km above ground layer. Updraft helicity here is defined as the integral of vertical velocity multiplied by the vertical component of relative vorticity with height for all upward (postive) vertical velocities (i.e. helicity contributions from downdrafts are ignored). Note: values are model-resolution dependent. Rising anti-cyclonic rotation will have positive values in the Southern Hemisphere. [m2 s-2]
0.7.15 min_updraft_helicity Minimum (over a time window) updraft helicity over a 2km to 5km above ground layer. Updraft helicity here is defined as the integral of vertical velocity multiplied by the vertical component of relative vorticity with height for all upward (postive) vertical velocities (i.e. helicity contributions from downdrafts are ignored). Note: values are model-resolution dependent. Rising cyclonic rotation will have negative values in the Southern Hemisphere. [m2 s-2]

Please note:

  • Fields in the above tables are listed in the same order as shown in the Parameters section of this document.
  • Units in the above table refer to NetCDF fields. In some cases the GRIB2 equivalent field has had values scaled/offset to convert to SI units for WMO GRIB2 compliance.
  • The nature of fields can not always be deduced easily from their NetCDF variable names. It is always safest to refer to the detailed description of a parameter.