Output messages¶

Interpreting the information on the screen¶

When running SFINCS, some information will be written to the screen. This consists of what version was run (number/date not always completely up to date), some files that were read in and the number of active points. After ‘Starting computation …’ appears the initialisation phase is finished.

Once ‘0% complete, Inf s remaining …’ appears, the model has actually started computing. The following times the percentual progress % is shown, a rough estimate of the time remaining untill completion of the model run is given.

Once ‘—Simulation is finished—’, your model has run succesfully and is writing away the model output files. Additionaly some information is written to the screen regarding total runtime, time consumption per section, the average time step, and the maximum occured water depth in the entire computation. If you know the initial water depth, this can give an indication whether the model has encountered instabilities or not. Hereafter SFINCS is closed off, ready to start a new simulation.

Normally SFINCS runs using OpenMP, utilising all computing power of available cores (e.g. all 4). This does not make it efficient to runs multiple SFINCS runs in parallel, it is advised to just run multiple simulations in series.

Example

 ----------- Welcome to SFINCS -----------

  @@@@@  @@@@@@@ @@ @@  @@   @@@@   @@@@@
 @@@ @@@ @@@@@@@ @@ @@@ @@ @@@@@@@ @@@ @@@
 @@@     @@      @@ @@@ @@ @@   @@ @@@
  @@@@@  @@@@@@  @@ @@@@@@ @@       @@@@@
     @@@ @@      @@ @@ @@@ @@   @@     @@@
 @@@ @@@ @@      @@ @@  @@  @@@@@@ @@@ @@@
  @@@@@  @@      @@ @@   @   @@@@   @@@@@

-----------------------------------------

Build-Revision: $Rev: v0.0.1-alpha$
Build-Date:     $Date: 2022-10-25$

Reading input file ...
Info : Running SFINCS in subgrid mode ...
Reading meteo data ...
Info : Preparing SFINCS grid on regular mesh ...
Reading sfincs.ind ...
Reading sfincs.msk ...
Number of active z points    :         4055
Number of active u/v points  :         7972
Reading sfincs.sbg ...
Reading water level boundaries ...
Reading observation points ...
Initializing output ...

 ---------- Starting simulation ----------

   0% complete,       - s remaining ...
   5% complete,     0.9 s remaining ...
  10% complete,     0.9 s remaining ...
  15% complete,     0.9 s remaining ...
  20% complete,     0.9 s remaining ...
  25% complete,     0.8 s remaining ...
  30% complete,     0.8 s remaining ...
  35% complete,     0.7 s remaining ...
  40% complete,     0.7 s remaining ...
  45% complete,     0.6 s remaining ...
  50% complete,     0.6 s remaining ...
  55% complete,     0.5 s remaining ...
  60% complete,     0.5 s remaining ...
  65% complete,     0.4 s remaining ...
  70% complete,     0.4 s remaining ...
  75% complete,     0.3 s remaining ...
  80% complete,     0.2 s remaining ...
  85% complete,     0.2 s remaining ...
  90% complete,     0.1 s remaining ...
  95% complete,     0.1 s remaining ...
 100% complete,     0.0 s remaining ...

 Info : Write maximum values of final timestep since t=dtmaxout was not reached
 yet...

 ---------- Simulation finished ----------
              ..............
          ......:@@@@@@@@:......
       ..::::..@@........@@.:::::..
     ..:::::..@@..::..::..@@.::::::..
.::::::..@@............@@.:::::::.
   .::::::..@@..............@@.:::::::.
  .::::::::..@@............@@..::::::::.
 .:::::::::...@@.@..@@..@.@@..::::::::::.
 .:::::::::...:@@@..@@..@@@:..:::::::::..
 ............@@.@@..@@..@@.@@............
 ^^^~~^^~~^^@@..............@@^^^~^^^~~^^
 .::::::::::@@..............@@.:::::::::.
  .......:.@@.....@.....@....@@.:.......
   .::....@@......@.@@@.@....@@.....::.
.:::~@@.:...:.@@...@@.:.:.@@~::::.
     .::~@@@@@@@@@@.....@@@@@@@@@~::.
       ..:~~~~~~~:.......:~~~~~~~:..
          ......................
              ..............
 -----------------------------------------

 Total time             :      1.211
 Total simulation time  :      1.198
 Time in input          :      0.013
 Time in boundaries     :      0.042 (  3.5%)
 Time in momentum       :      0.881 ( 73.5%)
 Time in continuity     :      0.207 ( 17.3%)
 Time in output         :      0.055 (  4.6%)

 Average time step (s)  :     22.031

 ---------- Closing off SFINCS -----------

Possible error messages and possible solutions¶

In case the following message is written to the screen, it means that something in the simulation has gone wrong.

Maximum depth of 100.0 m reached!!! Simulation stopped.

This means that a too large water depth has occured somewhere in the domain, indicating that some input is probably not optimal.

Possible problems can be:

The provided elevation file has very rapid changes in elevation, that locally lead to large water level gradients and fluxes. Possible solution: locally smooth the elevation data and provide this as a new depfile
In general the internal timesteps of SFINCS might be too large. Possible solution: reduce timesteps by supplying a lower value of alpha (e.g. 0.5) or set a low enough value of ‘dtmax’.
Sometimes a simulation might contain too large water depths are start in too deep water. This can potentially create problems as SFINCS is intented as a shallow water model.
When only forcing discharges in a for the rest entirely dry domain, the initial time steps can be too coarse to account for the needed timesteps when the discharge starts to flow. Possible solution: Make sure that part of the river/domain initially has water (limiting the time step) by specifying either ‘zsini’ or an ‘inifile’.
When forcing waves, the bzifile time-series might contain too rapid changes in water level, the internal timesteps of SFINCS are too large. Possible solution: reduce timesteps by supplying a lower value of alpha (e.g. 0.5).
Tip to check your model: specify netcdf output and load in the sfincs_map.nc file (e.g. Quickplot, Panoply, Matlab, Python) and have a look at the variables ‘zb’ and ‘msk’. Then you can see how SFINCS has interpreted the prodivided depfile and mskfile. Does map plots of these variables look weird? Probably something in your input file is not entirely correct!

Besides model instabilities, other recurring problems might be:

A specified (forcing) file/parameters is not read in > check whether you specified the name (e.g. netamuamvfile = netamuamv.nc ) with ONLY SPACES in between the keyword and argument. SFINCS does not interpret a mixture of spaces and tabs well. This may cause a file or parameter to be read in as ‘none’, whereafter this is not used in the model simulation as wanted.

Output description¶

Parameters netcdf file global (sfincs_map.nc)¶

In case of netcdf output, the given parameters mean the following:

x

description

x coordinate of cell centers in projected reference system

standard_name

projection_x_coordinate

units

m in projected reference system

y

description

y coordinate of cell centers in projected reference system

standard_name

projection_y_coordinate

units

m in projected reference system

edge_x

description

x coordinate of cell corners in projected reference system

standard_name

projection_x_coordinate

units

m in projected reference system

edge_y

description

y coordinate of cell corners in projected reference system

standard_name

projection_y_coordinate

units

m in projected reference system

zb

description

Bed level elevation (in case of subgrid version of SFINCS, this elevation is not used in the model but the sbgfile with subgrid tables is used instead).

standard_name

altitude

units

m above reference level

msk

description

Time-step global map output.

standard_name

land_binary_mask

units

time

description

Time of global map output.

standard_name

time

units

seconds since ‘tref’

zs

description

Instantaneous water level per ‘dtout’ timestep, corresponding with netcdf variable ‘time’.

standard_name

sea_surface_height_above_mean_sea_level

units

m above reference level

h

description

Instantaneous water depth per ‘dtout’ timestep, corresponding with netcdf variable ‘time’.

standard_name

depth

units

m

timemax

description

Time of global map output per ‘dtmaxout’ timestep.

standard_name

time

units

seconds since ‘tref’

zsmax

description

Maximum water level per ‘dtmaxout’ timestep, only given if dtmaxout>0, corresponding with netcdf variable ‘timemax’.

standard_name

maximum of sea_surface_height_above_mean_sea_level

units

m above reference level

cuminf

description

Cumulative infiltration depth over whole simulation.

units

m

cumprcp

description

Cumulative precipitation depth over whole simulation.

units

m

inp

description

Copy of all the supplied input to SFINCS from ‘sfincs.inp’.

units

total_runtime

description

Total model runtime in seconds, as displayed by SFINCS to the screen.

units

s

average_dt

description

Model average timestep in seconds, as displayed by SFINCS to the screen.

units

s

Parameters netcdf file observation points (sfincs_his.nc)¶

This file is only created if observation points are supplied in the ‘obsfile’.

point_x

description

x coordinate of interpreted observation points in projected reference system

standard_name

projection_x_coordinate

units

m in projected reference system

point_y

description

y coordinate of interpreted observation points in projected reference system

standard_name

projection_y_coordinate

units

m in projected reference system

station_x

description

x coordinate of specified observation points in projected reference system

standard_name

projection_x_coordinate

units

m in projected reference system

station_y

description

y coordinate of specified observation points in projected reference system

standard_name

projection_y_coordinate

units

m in projected reference system

point_zb

description

Bed level elevation of observation points.

standard_name

altitude

units

m above reference level

time

description

Time of his output.

standard_name

time

units

seconds since ‘tref’

point_zs

description

Instantaneous water level per ‘dthisout’ timestep of observation points, corresponding with netcdf variable ‘time’.

standard_name

sea_surface_height_above_mean_sea_level

units

m above reference level

point_h

description

Instantaneous water depth per ‘dthisout’ timestep of observation points, corresponding with netcdf variable ‘time’.

standard_name

point_h

units

m

point_prcp

description

Instantaneous precipitation rate ‘dthisout’ timestep, corresponding with netcdf variable ‘time’.

standard_name

sea_surface_height_above_mean_sea_level

units

m above reference level

point_qinf

description

Instantaneous infiltration rate per ‘dthisout’ timestep, corresponding with netcdf variable ‘time’.

standard_name

point_qinf

units

m

crosssection_discharge

description

Discharge through cross-section per ‘dthisout’ timestep, corresponding with netcdf variable ‘time’.

standard_name

discharge

units

m3/s