Point-Stat Tool: General

Point-Stat Functionality

The Point-Stat tool provides verification statistics for forecasts at observation points, as opposed to over gridded analyses. The Point-Stat tool matches gridded forecasts to point observation locations using several configurable interpolation methods. The tool then computes continuous as well as categorical verification statistics for these matched pairs. The categorical statistics are generally calculated by applying a threshold to the forecast and observation values. Confidence intervals, which represent a measure of uncertainty, are computed for all of the verification statistics.

Point-Stat Usage

View the usage statement for Point-Stat by simply typing the following:

bin/point_stat

Usage: point_stat
	fcst_file	Input gridded file path/name
	obs_file	Input NetCDF observation file path/name
	config_file	Configuration file
	[-climo climo_file]	Input gridded climatological path/filename for computation of anomaly statistics. Must be on the same grid as forecast file (optional)
	[-point_obs file]	Additional NetCDF observation files to be used (optional)
	[-fcst_valid time]	For forecast files with multiple output times, set the time to be verified in YYYYMMDD[_HH[MMSS]] format (optional)
	[-fcst_lead time]	For forecast files with multiple lead times, set the lead time to be verified in HH[MMSS] format (optional)
	[-obs_valid_beg time]	Sets the beginning of the matching time window in YYYYMMDD[_HH[MMSS]] format (optional)
	[-obs_valid_end time]	Sets the end of the matching time window in YYYYMMDD[_HH[MMSS]] format (optional)
	[-outdir path]	Overrides the default output directory (optional)
	[-log file]	Outputs log messages to the specified file (optional)
	[-v level]	Level of logging (optional)

At a minimum, the input fcst_file in GRIB or NetCDF format (from PCP-Combine), the input obs_file in NetCDF format (output of PB2NC or ASCII2NC), and the configuration config_file must be passed in on the command line. You may use the -point_obs command line argument to specify additional NetCDF observation files to be used. In order to produce anomaly statistics (SAL1L2 and VAL1L2 line types described in Section 4.2.2 of the MET User's Guide), you must specify a file containing climatological data using the -climo_file command line argument.