Running the ocean (IOMB) configuration

While the ILAMB software package was originally envisioned for comparisons involving the land domain of global earth system models, the software is written generically to facilitate any model-reference comparisons. The key is the input argument to ilamb-run which specifies which configuration file to use --config. As covered in previous tutorials, this option allows you to use the ILAMB methodology and software to setup comparisons to any reference source you may desire.

However, we also curate a collection of reference datasets and a configuration file for comparisons to output from ocean models. As part of the installation process, ILAMB will place this and other supported configuration files in the installed location of the ILAMB software. In order to find where this file is located, try to execute:

find `python -c 'import site; print(site.getsitepackages()[0])'` -name "iomb.cfg"

This command uses the location in which python looks for packages to start a search for the file iomb.cfg. We recommend copying this file to a local location for convenience or creating a symbolic link. Note that we make updates to this file periodically and so to keep updated, you will need to either create a symbolic link or remember to periodically copy the configure file to your run location. If this is confusing for you, you can always clone the ILAMB repository and look in the source to locate the IOMB configuration file.

The reference observational data can be obtained by using ilamb-fetch and specificying the --remote_root:

ilamb-fetch --remote_root https://www.ilamb.org/IOMB-Data

Note that the ilamb-fetch command requires that ILAMB package is installed. Once you have the reference data downloaded and the iomb.cfg file, you may run the IOMB comparisons against model data you have or have downloaded from locations such as the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF).