Input for MAP D-PHASE Implementation Plan
Section 4.2.4: Common format for hydrological model
alerts
Authors: Simon Jaun & WG-DI members
Version 1.0 as of 19 April 2007
Naming convention for output files (case insensitive):
<INIDATE(10)>_<MODEL(8)>_<DRIVINGDATA(8)>_A.xml
where
– INIDATE:
YYYYMMDDHH (in UTC), initial time of the forecast
– MODEL:
hydrological model name (e.g., PREVAH)
– DRIVINGDATA:
– atmospheric model name (e.g., COSMOCH7) or
– GAUGES (hydrological input) or
– RADAR (atmospheric input, radar) or
– OBS (atmospheric input, conventional observations) or
– MIX (observed and modelled input)
– A stands for alerts.
Format definition:
The XML files are basically text files containing some format tags (similar to HTML).
The example files (see below) are derived from the corresponding NetCDF file. The
whole thing should be fairly self-explanatory, nevertheless a few comments:
<author> name of experiment
<type> either DetHydro or ProbHydro (deterministic, probabilistic)
<modelname> name of hydrological model, run at ${Institution}
<drivingdata> name of meteo model / meteo stations run at / collected by ${Institution}
Level 3: detailed forecast  <regions_details>
Level 1 & 2: summarized forecast  <regions_summary>
(cf. http://www.d-phase.info)
<alert> contains actual warnings:
-1 = no data / 0 = green / 1 = yellow / 2 = orange / 3 = red
<region_short> corresponds to the "Unique station number" from the NetCDF-file,
<region> is a combination from rivernames and stationnames
The summarized forecasts show daily maximal warnings for the respective region.
For probabilitstic forecasts, we also have to define, how many exceeding members are
needed to indicate a warnlevel (set to 33%).
Example files:
DetHydro: 2007041800_prevah_cosmoch7_a.xml
ProbHydro: 2007041800_prevah_cleps_a.xml