[MITgcm-devel] Re: [MITgcm-cvs] MITgcm/pkg/diagnostics CVS Commit

[Andrea Molod]

hi baylor,

> I suggest that missing value shouldn't be zero by default.  That just 
> confirms the old problem where masked fields were set to zero in the masks. 
> For fields like temperature and velocity that was just a mess.  If we use 
> missing_value=0, and open in ferret or netcdf, then, for example, in a run 
> started from rest ALL the initial velocities will be missing!  I suggest the 
> missing value standard from netcdf:  -1e34.


i agree that 0. is a potentially problematic missing value. (i have
been using 1.e15 in some parts of the code and converting back 
and forth) but the issue is not only for output files, it is for the model 
itself (asking the output routines to put -1e34 into the places where the
field is 0.0 doesn't help much). until we discuss and resolve this, i
asked ed to add the value we are all using anyway (and is in the fields 
themselves!) as a netcdf file attribute. i hope that we can leave it
this way until we deal with (or decide that 0. is ok) it in a somewhat
consistent manner.

andrea