User's guide to blacklisting

In the operational suite on Cray computer, the blacklist was basically a list of undesired stations to be excluded from the analysis in operations, and usually in prepan experiments, too, based on monthly monitoring by the Operations Department. The technique for blacklisting has been streamlined as a part of the migration of operational codes from Cray to Fujitsu.

A new blacklist format has been introduced that allows a great deal more flexibility in decision making on the use of observations. The blacklist now consists of two parts: data selection part and monthly monitoring part. Data selection part contains information about which variables will be used in the assimilation, and it should be amended only rarely, except in experimentation. The monthly monitoring part, on the other hand, will be updated fairly frequently as a result of data monitoring. The former automatic ship blacklist is not supported any more.

This guide comprehensively describes the format of the blacklist language developed at ECMWF during the migration project in 1995-96 based on initial idea by Mats Hamrud.