Query about using the custom CMOR variables options for ICON-ART

[nchawang]

Hi ESMValtool community!

I was using the ESMValtool to perform some analysis on ICON-ART outputs i have had success with the AERmon mip table to load and perform some analysis on the aerosol varaibles. However, not all variables are listed in the AERmon tables but was pointed towards the custom CMOR tables options, i initially tried it with a simple diagnostic of a spatial plot for a custom variable and haven't quite gotten it to work.

following here,

I first added obtained the developer config file with
esmvaltool config get-config-developer --path=${to my analysis dir}

and added the custom option:

custom:
  cmor_path: '/absolute/path/to/custom/cmor/tables'

I then proceeded to add a .dat file for the variable emissdusta following the format mentioned here, I saw ICON has the option CMOR type as 'CMIP6', however since the documentation mentioned to set it as CMIP5, I've put the source as the .dat file as CMIP5, I've also attached (as a .txt format for uploading) it if i've made it wrong.

CMOR_emissdusta.txt

I then made the changes in the recipe and called,
esmvaltool run --config-file ./config-user.yml recipe_icon.yml

I get an error
ERROR Unable to load CMOR table (project) 'ICON' for variable 'emissdusta' with mip 'AERmon'

I also changed the project options in the recipe to custom to perhaps see if it will take the variable but i get the same issue:
ERROR Unable to load CMOR table (project) 'custom' for variable 'emissdusta' with mip 'AERmon'

I'm not sure if i'm doing this right, should i also point to the developer file in the esmvaltool run command to take in the additional varaibles?

I'm attaching a zip which contains the main debug logs for both cases, the config-developer file and the recipe. Any help with this regard is really appreciated, thanks!

new-variable.zip

[schlunma]

Did you specify config_developer_file: path/to/your/file.yml in your user configuration (file or via command line)? This is briefly mentioned in a note here. Otherwise the default config-developer will be used, which does not contain your own custom table.

Sorry, I know that this is can be confusing, but we actively work on improving our configuration.

ICON is the correct project, so you're first version is good! It would probably also be very helpful to at least specify the expected units in your custom table, no idea if that works without them. In addition, a long_name would also be helpful.

[nchawang]

ah! it was not specified in the user configuration, it moved ahead when i specified in the command line as
esmvaltool run --config-file ./config-user.yml --config-developer-file ./config-developer.yml recipe_icon.yml

You were indeed correct, the units need to be mentioned otherwise it fails later on, thanks for that!, i also added a time dimension in the .dat file (dimensions: longitude latitude time) as it flagged an error

after this, now when i run it it moves ahead but flags an error as:
ValueError: Cannot shift time coordinate: failed to determine previous time step for frequency ''. Use `shift_time=false` in the recipe to disable this feature
i then added shift_time: false but i get another error:
NotImplementedError: Cannot guess time bounds for frequency ''
I'm not sure if this is due to an error in how i had defined the custom variable

I've attached the zip files of the logs, perhaps they could be of some help, thanks for helping @schlunma

new-variable-2.zip

[schlunma]

Replace mip: AERMon with mip: AERmon in the recipe, that should do the trick (the first is an invalid table name). Alternatively, you can add a frequency: mon to the recipe.

[nchawang]

Ah! i completely missed that typo, it worked! thanks @schlunma !