Using 30s resolution terrestrial data in MM5

Using 30s resolution terrestrial data in MM5:

During generating TERRAIN_DOMAIN# input files for MM5, if you set the NTYPE variable to 6 in the terrain.deck file in the TERRAIN directory (Which represents 30 seconds resolution, about 1km.):

MAXNES =   1,       ; NUMBER OF DOMAINS TO PROCESS
NTYPE   =    6,    3,    4,    6,    6,   6, ; INPUT DATA RESOLUTION
;
;      1: 1 deg (~111 km) global terrain and landuse
;      2: 30 min ( ~56 km) global terrain and landuse
;      3: 10 min ( ~19 km) global terrain and landuse
;      4; 5 min ( ~9 km) global terrain and landuse
;      5; 2 min ( ~4 km) global terrain and landuse
;      6; 30 sec ( ~.9 km) global terrain and landuse
;

You might encounter some problems here: (Logged in terrain.print.out)：

RECORD = 7411, ERROR OCCURED ON UNIT: 31

This problem seems to be caused by some missing files. Open the FTP log called "ftp30s.out", in which it will tell you what it needs:

gunzip: e100n40.tar.gz: No such file or directory

In this case, the lack of "e100n40.tar.gz" is the cause.
But why it cannot be fetched automatically by the FTP script in the TERRAIN directory? I guess maybe somehow the file was removed, or the address of that FTP site from USGS has been changed.

Anyway, you can download them here: ftp://edcftp.cr.usgs.gov/data/gtopo30/global/
Download what you need according to the error messages in "ftp30s.out". Put it into the TERRAIN/Data30s direcotry, it's okay either way to leave it there or untar it.

Seems that many others have encountered the same problem too, hope this helps.

(In fact, the solution to this error can also be found in the FAQ page of the MM5 official website, but the link from USGS was dead too)

Reference: http://www.mmm.ucar.edu/mm5/faqTerrain.html

<-Memo