waccmToMusicBox.py: Implement 2 date-time bounds to create time-based evolving conditions #422
Description
This request is an extension of this issue:
#399
Gabi and Mary described a use case for incorporating the time dimension: A research aircraft is flying through the atmosphere and collecting chemical samples. They want to take a box-average (3D) at all the time steps, and create a timed sequence of environmental conditions along the flight path.
Dec 1, 2025
The current script waccmToMusicBox.py does nothing with the time dimension. The single date and time are specified as follows:
python3 waccmToMusicBox.py --wrfchemDir ~/MusicBox/music-box-311-wrf-chem-extract-3/sample_waccm_data --musicaDir ~/MusicBox/WRF-Chem/csvJsonDir --date 20250820 --time 08:00 --latitude 47.0,49.0 --longitude "'-123.0,-121.0'" --template ~/MusicBox/WRF-Chem/templates/TS1 --output CSV,JSON --verbose
The extracted values are assumed to be the initial conditions/configuration of the model:
modeling2:/home/drews/MusicBox/WRF-Chem/csvJsonDir> ls -ltr
total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 drews support 261 Dec 1 14:27 initial_conditions-wrf-chem.csv
-rw-r--r-- 1 drews support 531 Dec 1 14:27 initial_config-wrf-chem.json
That CSV file is only two rows: chemical names, and values. We could add a Time first column and then lots of additional rows. I am not sure how the JSON config file is supposed to handle time.
MusicBox does indeed have the concept of environmental conditions according to time.
@carl-drews we call them evolving conditions. See this example.
For evolving conditions over a time box:
The first column in the CSV output file would be: time.s or time [s]
From: Carl Drews drews@ucar.edu
Date: Wed, Feb 4, 2026 at 4:59 PM
Subject: Re: PBLH in WACCM?
To: Shawn Honomichl shawnh@ucar.edu
Cc: Gabriele Pfister pfister@ucar.edu, Kyle Shores kshores@ucar.edu
Shawn -
Thank you! I will retrieve one of those output files tomorrow.
The context here is that I am working on a script waccmToMusicBox.py to extract an average over a rectangular box from either WACCM or WRF-Chem. That average becomes one of the initial conditions for MusicBox, or a file of evolving conditions if more than one date-time is specified. Gabi is interested in activity within the boundary layer. Since WACCM and WRF-Chem use substantially different grids, it is not feasible to code it up for WACCM and never test it properly. :-)
Carl