Table of Contents - The Atmospheric Studies Group at TRC

Section 9: CALPUFF
9.15.7 Debug Puff-Tracking File (DEBUG.DAT)
CALPUFF contains a debug option to report much information about each selected puff as it is
transported and sampled over a number of modeling periods. Most of this extra information is
written to the CALPUFF list file (see Section 9.15.1). A limited set of puff information is also
written to DEBUG.DAT each sampling step when the debug option is selected. The purpose of
this file is to provide puff characteristics at the end of each sampling step so that its location and
size can be reviewed to visualize the combined effects of transport and diffusion at specific times.
The DEBUG.DAT file is a sequential, formatted data file (see Table 9-60 for an example)
consisting of two types of records: two header records and a variable number of sets of data
records. The header records name the variables that are reported in the data records (see Table 9-
61). Each data record provides information about a single puff at the end of a single sampling
step. While there may be many sampling steps over the course of an hour, the time reported for
each is the end-time of the current hour.
A series of nested loops controls the sequence in which the data records are written to the file.
The outermost loop is over the number of modeling periods (hours) for which debug output is
selected. Within this is a loop over the range of puffs that has been selected. The innermost loop
is over the sampling steps for each of these puffs. Because the puff ID and the date and time are
included in each record, this structure is readily discerned.
Records for individual puffs are written during the selected modeling period only while that puff
exists on the computational grid. It is not tracked before it is emitted, and it is not tracked once it
leaves the modeling domain.
9-314