VIC Domain file¶

The Image Driver uses the NetCDF file format to define model running domain.

Below is a list of variables in the domain netCDF file. The dimensions of the netCDF file are lat and lon. Note that here only the type of variables (i.e., MASK, AREA, FRAC, LAT and LON) is listed; corresponding variable names in the input netCDF file are specified by user in the Global Parameter File. All the listed variables are required.

Variable	Dimension	Units	Type	Description
LAT	[lat]	degree	double	Latitudes
LON	[lon]	degree	double	Longitues
MASK	[lat, lon]	N/A	integer	Mask of domain. 1 for grid cells inside considered domain; 0 for grid cells outside of domain. Cells outside of domain will not be run. Use run_cell variable in the parameter file to turn on/off active cells inside domain.
AREA	[lat, lon]	m2	double	Area of grid cells.
FRAC	[lat, lon]	N/A	double	Fraction of grid cells that is land.

Example netCDF format VIC 5 image driver domain file¶

ncdump -h /ArkRed.domain.nc
netcdf ArkRed.domain {                                                                       
dimensions:                                                                                  
        lat = 66 ;                                                                           
        lon = 125 ;                                                                          
variables:                                                                                   
        int mask(lat, lon) ;
                mask:comment = "0 indicates grid cell outside of domain" ;
                mask:long_name = "domain mask" ;
        double lon(lon) ;
                lon:long_name = "longitude coordinate" ;
                lon:units = "degrees_east" ;
        double lat(lat) ;
                lat:long_name = "latitude coordinate" ;
                lat:units = "degrees_north" ;
        double frac(lat, lon) ;
                frac:long_name = "fraction of grid cell that is active" ;
                frac:units = "1" ;
        double area(lat, lon) ;
                area:standard_name = "area" ;
                area:long_name = "area of grid cell" ;
                area:units = "m2" ;

// global attributes:
                :title = "VIC domain data" ;
                :Conventions = "CF-1.6" ;
                :history = "Wed Oct 12 15:48:42 2016: ncap2 -s mask=int(mask) ArkRed.domain.nc.float_mask ArkRed.domain.nc\n",
                        "created by ymao, 2016-09-23 18:17:58.761256" ;
                :user_comment = "VIC domain data" ;
                :source = "generated from VIC CONUS 1.8 deg model parameters, see Maurer et al. (2002) for more information" ;
                :nco_openmp_thread_number = 1 ;
}