Bugfix: Fix MTD to run on any MET-supported grid projection

[j-opatz]

Describe the Problem

This issue arose via this dtcenter/METplus#2691 GitHub discussion.

Currently the MTD tool utilizes a specialized code to create output netCDFs (the write_nc_grid function). During the code creation, support was only given to a small subset of grid projections ( lat/lon, lambert conformal, and polar stereographic).

As a result, passing in any of the other MET-supported grid projections (for example, rotated lat/lon) and requesting output in those same projections results in an error:

ERROR  : 
ERROR  :   bool write_nc_grid(NcFile &, const Grid &) -> unsupported projection type
ERROR  : 

Expected Behavior

Because MET and METplus as a whole support more grid projections than what write_nc_grid supports, users should be able to pass any of the supported grid projections and receive output in their desired (and supported) grid projections.

We should update MTD's logic to use the common library code write_netcdf_proj function which would fix this issue (ie support all METplus supported projections).

This bugfix should be applied to the develop branch, as well as a 11.1 bugfix patch.

Environment

Describe your runtime environment:
*1. Machine: Seneca
*2. OS: Linux
*3. MET-12.0 NB09232024

To Reproduce

Describe the steps to reproduce the behavior:
*1. Use input data not in one of the 3 listed projections: lat/lon, lambert conformal, or polar stereographic
*2. Call the MTD tool
Note: @j-opatz can provide testing data and configuration file as needed.

Relevant Deadlines

List relevant project deadlines here or state NONE.

Funding Source

2782544 (NOAA Base FY24)

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[JohnHalleyGotway]

@j-opatz, the change from using MTD-specific code for reading/writing grid information to/from NetCDF files to calling common library functionality was very easy and quick.

Please see the code compiled for this bugfix branch:

seneca:/d1/personal/johnhg/MET/MET_development/MET-bugfix_2979_develop_mtd_grid

Can you please test that version of MTD with the test data to see if the behavior has changed?

[JohnHalleyGotway]

I manually tested as described below to confirm that this set of changes works as expected.

1. Adapted the existing mtd_basic unit test in unit_mtd.xml.
2. Ran regrid_data_plane to regrid the input files to NCEP Grid 1 which is Mercator:

for file in `ls -1 *.grb`; do ../../../bin/regrid_data_plane $file G001 `echo $file | sed 's/grb/nc/g'` -field 'name="APCP"; level="A1";' ; done

3. Modified the MTDConfig_simple file to handle the NetCDF inputs:

   field = {
      name  = "APCP_01";
      level = "(*,*)";
   };

4. Ran the modified configuration to use last night's build of the develop branch to produce:

cd /d1/personal/johnhg/MET/MET_development/MET-bugfix_2979_develop_mtd_grid/internal/test_unit
 ./unit_mtd_basic_develop.sh

Errors out with:

ERROR  :   bool write_nc_grid(NcFile &, const Grid &) -> unsupported projection type

5. Rerun using mtd from this bugfix branch:

./unit_mtd_basic_bugfix.sh

And it runs fine without error.