Problem running recipe_ocean_bgc.yml

[TomasTorsvik]

Describe the bug
A clear and concise description of what the bug is. If you are developing a new diagnostic script, please provide a link to the code/branch on GitHub that you are working in.

I'm getting an error when running the standard recipe_ocean_bgc.yml script. The script runs part way through and creates some plots, but returns an error on the step "esmvalcore._task:236 Starting task diag_timeseries_scalars/mfo in process":

2020-07-02 10:48:24,532 UTC [14868] DEBUG esmvalcore.preprocessor:220 Running fix_metadata([<iris 'Cube' of sea_water_transport_across_line / (kg s-1) (time: 1753; -- : 15)>], {'project': 'CMIP5', 'dataset': 'HadGEM2-ES', 'short_name': 'mfo', 'mip': 'Omon', 'frequency': 'mon', 'check_level': <CheckLevels.DEFAULT: 3>})
2020-07-02 10:48:24,533 UTC [14868] ERROR esmvalcore.preprocessor:224 Failed to run fix_metadata([<iris 'Cube' of sea_water_transport_across_line / (kg s-1) (time: 1753; -- : 15)>], {'project': 'CMIP5', 'dataset': 'HadGEM2-ES', 'short_name': 'mfo', 'mip': 'Omon', 'frequency': 'mon', 'check_level': <CheckLevels.DEFAULT: 3>})

I didn't see any open issues about recipe_ocean_bgc.yml, but I see issues #1523 and #1561 mention "fix_metadata" problems, so I wonder if the problem with recipe_ocean_bgc.yml could be related.

Best wishes,
Tomas

Please attach

• The recipe that you are trying to run, you can find a copy in the run directory in the output directory
• The main_log_debug.txt file, this can also be found in the run directory in the output directory

main_log_debug.txt

recipe_ocean_bgc.yml.txt

[TomasTorsvik]

The problem seems to be connected only to the "mfo" variable. I commented out the diag_timeseries_scalars

ESMValTool/esmvaltool/recipes/recipe_ocean_bgc.yml

Lines 324 to 332 in 71e2c72

	diag_timeseries_scalars:
	description: Scalar time series
	variables:
	mfo: # Marine currents flux
	preprocessor: prep_timeseries_scalar
	mip: Omon
	scripts:
	Scalar_timeseries:
	script: ocean/diagnostic_timeseries.py

This caused the recipe to run without errors.

[TomasTorsvik]

I'm getting a very similar error also with recipe_ocean_amoc.yml, but this time for the "amoc" variable. It is also using the script "ocean/diagnostic_timeseries.py".

[TomasTorsvik]

I see that I might have stumbled over something that has been mentioned in another issue
#1621 (comment)

[bouweandela]

Indeed this looks like the same issue. It was solved in ESMValGroup/ESMValCore#657 and will be included in the next release of ESMValCore (scheduled for July 20). If you would like to run the recipe earlier, you could install ESMValCore from source as described in this section and the next one.

[TomasTorsvik]

@bouweandela
Thanks for getting back to me about this. I'm probably going to wait until the next release then to see if things improve :)