diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 0a35233e15b3c32648886e7d142388a7d4be36cd..c3bd6ba8e024611eb0feea0c7d1fd64145bfd489 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,180 +1,106 @@
-absl-py==0.12.0
-aiohttp==3.7.4
-alembic==1.4.2
-apipkg==1.5
+### this is the pip list --format=freeze from a local ubuntu-vm ###
+
+absl-py==0.11.0
 appdirs==1.4.4
-argcomplete==1.12.0
-asn1crypto==1.3.0
 astor==0.8.1
 astropy==4.1
 astunparse==1.6.3
-atomicwrites==1.4.0
-attrs==19.3.0
-backcall==0.2.0
-backports.shutil-get-terminal-size==1.0.0
-bcrypt==3.1.7
-bitstring==3.1.7
-blist==1.3.6
+attrs==20.3.0
 Bottleneck==1.3.2
 cached-property==1.5.2
-cachetools==4.2.2
-certifi==2020.6.20
-cffi==1.14.1
+cachetools==4.2.4
+certifi==2020.12.5
 cftime==1.4.1
-chardet==3.0.4
-click==7.1.2
-cloudpickle==1.5.0
-ClusterShell==1.8.3
-configparser==5.0.0
-coverage==5.1
-cryptography==3.0
+chardet==4.0.0
+click==8.0.3
+cloudpickle==2.0.0
+coverage==5.4
 cycler==0.10.0
-Cython==0.29.21
-dask==2.22.0
-deap==1.3.1
-decorator==4.4.2
+dask==2021.10.0
 dill==0.3.3
-ecdsa==0.15
-execnet==1.7.1
-Flask==1.1.2
+distributed==2021.10.0
 flatbuffers==1.12
 fsspec==0.8.5
-funcsigs==1.0.2
-future==0.18.2
 gast==0.4.0
-google-auth==1.30.0
-google-auth-oauthlib==0.4.4
+google-auth==2.3.0
+google-auth-oauthlib==0.4.6
 google-pasta==0.2.0
-grako==3.99.9
-grpcio==1.34.1
-gviz-api==1.9.0
+greenlet==1.1.2
+grpcio==1.34.0
 h5py==3.1.0
-html5lib==1.1
-hypothesis==4.44.2
+HeapDict==1.0.1
 idna==2.10
+importlib-metadata==3.4.0
 iniconfig==1.1.1
-ipaddress==1.0.23
-ipython==7.16.1
-ipython-genutils==0.2.0
-isodate==0.6.0
-itsdangerous==1.1.0
-jedi==0.17.2
-Jinja2==2.11.2
-jsonschema==3.2.0
+Jinja2==3.0.2
+joblib==1.1.0
 keras-nightly==2.5.0.dev2021032900
 Keras-Preprocessing==1.1.2
-kiwisolver==1.2.0
-liac-arff==2.4.0
+kiwisolver==1.3.1
 locket==0.2.1
-lockfile==0.12.2
-lxml==4.5.2
-Mako==1.1.3
-Markdown==3.3.4
-MarkupSafe==1.1.1
-matplotlib==3.3.1
-mock==4.0.2
-more-itertools==8.4.0
-mpmath==1.1.0
-msgpack==0.6.2
-netaddr==0.8.0
+Markdown==3.3.3
+MarkupSafe==2.0.1
+matplotlib==3.3.4
+mock==4.0.3
+msgpack==1.0.2
 netCDF4==1.5.5.1
-netifaces==0.10.9
-networkx==2.4
-nose==1.3.7
-numpy==1.19.4
-oauthlib==3.1.0
-olefile==0.46
+numpy==1.19.5
+oauthlib==3.1.1
 opt-einsum==3.3.0
 ordered-set==4.0.2
-packaging==20.4
-pandas==1.1.0
-paramiko==2.7.1
-parso==0.7.1
-pathlib2==2.3.5
-paycheck==1.0.2
-pbr==5.4.5
-pep8==1.7.1
-pexpect==4.8.0
-pickleshare==0.7.5
-Pillow==7.2.0
-pip==20.1.1
+packaging==20.9
+pandas==1.1.5
+partd==1.1.0
+patsy==0.5.1
+Pillow==8.1.0
 pluggy==0.13.1
-ply==3.11
-portpicker==1.3.1
-prompt-toolkit==3.0.5
-protobuf==3.17.3
-prov==1.5.3
-psutil==5.7.2
-ptyprocess==0.6.0
-py==1.9.0
+protobuf==3.15.0
+psutil==5.8.0
+py==1.10.0
 pyasn1==0.4.8
 pyasn1-modules==0.2.8
-pycparser==2.20
-pycrypto==2.6.1
-pydot==1.4.1
-pydotplus==2.0.2
-Pygments==2.6.1
-PyNaCl==1.4.0
+pydot==1.4.2
 pyparsing==2.4.7
-pyrsistent==0.16.0
 pyshp==2.1.3
-pytest==5.4.3
+pytest==6.2.2
 pytest-cov==2.11.1
-pytest-forked==1.3.0
 pytest-html==3.1.1
 pytest-lazy-fixture==0.6.3
 pytest-metadata==1.11.0
-pytest-runner==5.2
 pytest-sugar==0.9.4
-pytest-xdist==1.34.0
 python-dateutil==2.8.1
-python-editor==1.0.4
-python-gflags==3.1.2
-python-oauth2==1.1.1
-pytz==2020.1
-PyYAML==5.3.1
-pyzmq==18.1.0
-rdflib==5.0.0
-requests==2.24.0
+pytz==2021.1
+PyYAML==5.4.1
+requests==2.25.1
 requests-oauthlib==1.3.0
 rsa==4.7.2
-Rtree==0.9.4
-scandir==1.10.0
+scikit-learn==1.0.1
 scipy==1.5.2
-seaborn==0.10.1
-setuptools==47.1.0
-setuptools-scm==4.1.2
-simplegeneric==0.8.1
-simplejson==3.17.2
+seaborn==0.11.1
+Shapely==1.7.1
 six==1.15.0
-SPARQLWrapper==1.8.5
-SQLAlchemy==1.3.18
+sortedcontainers==2.4.0
+SQLAlchemy==1.4.26
 statsmodels==0.12.2
-sympy==1.6.1
 tabulate==0.8.8
-TatSu==5.5.0
 tblib==1.7.0
-tensorboard==2.5.0
+tensorboard==2.7.0
 tensorboard-data-server==0.6.1
-tensorboard-plugin-profile==2.4.0
 tensorboard-plugin-wit==1.8.0
 tensorflow==2.5.0
 tensorflow-estimator==2.5.0
 termcolor==1.1.0
-toml==0.10.1
-toolz==0.10.0
-traitlets==4.3.3
-traits==6.1.1
-typing-extensions==3.7.4
-urllib3==1.25.10
-vcversioner==2.16.0.0
-wcwidth==0.2.5
-webencodings==0.5.1
-Werkzeug==2.0.0
+threadpoolctl==3.0.0
+toml==0.10.2
+toolz==0.11.1
+tornado==6.1
+typing-extensions==3.7.4.3
+urllib3==1.26.3
+Werkzeug==1.0.1
 wget==3.2
-wheel==0.35.0
 wrapt==1.12.1
-xarray==0.16.0
-XlsxWriter==1.2.9
+xarray==0.16.2
+zict==2.0.0
+zipp==3.4.0
 
-psycopg2
\ No newline at end of file
+# Cartopy==0.18.0
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/requirements_vm_local.txt b/requirements_vm_local.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d57cfb8e0b75055e187816b9922f72ac510cbd7d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/requirements_vm_local.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+absl-py==0.11.0
+appdirs==1.4.4
+astor==0.8.1
+astropy==4.1
+astunparse==1.6.3
+attrs==20.3.0
+Bottleneck==1.3.2
+cached-property==1.5.2
+cachetools==4.2.4
+Cartopy==0.18.0
+certifi==2020.12.5
+cftime==1.4.1
+chardet==4.0.0
+click==8.0.3
+cloudpickle==2.0.0
+coverage==5.4
+cycler==0.10.0
+dask==2021.10.0
+dill==0.3.3
+distributed==2021.10.0
+flatbuffers==1.12
+fsspec==0.8.5
+gast==0.4.0
+google-auth==2.3.0
+google-auth-oauthlib==0.4.6
+google-pasta==0.2.0
+greenlet==1.1.2
+grpcio==1.34.0
+h5py==3.1.0
+HeapDict==1.0.1
+idna==2.10
+importlib-metadata==3.4.0
+iniconfig==1.1.1
+Jinja2==3.0.2
+joblib==1.1.0
+keras-nightly==2.5.0.dev2021032900
+Keras-Preprocessing==1.1.2
+kiwisolver==1.3.1
+locket==0.2.1
+Markdown==3.3.3
+MarkupSafe==2.0.1
+matplotlib==3.3.4
+mock==4.0.3
+msgpack==1.0.2
+netCDF4==1.5.5.1
+numpy==1.19.5
+oauthlib==3.1.1
+opt-einsum==3.3.0
+ordered-set==4.0.2
+packaging==20.9
+pandas==1.1.5
+partd==1.1.0
+patsy==0.5.1
+Pillow==8.1.0
+pluggy==0.13.1
+protobuf==3.15.0
+psutil==5.8.0
+py==1.10.0
+pyasn1==0.4.8
+pyasn1-modules==0.2.8
+pydot==1.4.2
+pyparsing==2.4.7
+pyshp==2.1.3
+pytest==6.2.2
+pytest-cov==2.11.1
+pytest-html==3.1.1
+pytest-lazy-fixture==0.6.3
+pytest-metadata==1.11.0
+pytest-sugar==0.9.4
+python-dateutil==2.8.1
+pytz==2021.1
+PyYAML==5.4.1
+requests==2.25.1
+requests-oauthlib==1.3.0
+rsa==4.7.2
+scikit-learn==1.0.1
+scipy==1.5.2
+seaborn==0.11.1
+Shapely==1.7.1
+six==1.15.0
+sortedcontainers==2.4.0
+SQLAlchemy==1.4.26
+statsmodels==0.12.2
+tabulate==0.8.8
+tblib==1.7.0
+tensorboard==2.7.0
+tensorboard-data-server==0.6.1
+tensorboard-plugin-wit==1.8.0
+tensorflow==2.5.0
+tensorflow-estimator==2.5.0
+termcolor==1.1.0
+threadpoolctl==3.0.0
+toml==0.10.2
+toolz==0.11.1
+tornado==6.1
+typing-extensions==3.7.4.3
+urllib3==1.26.3
+Werkzeug==1.0.1
+wget==3.2
+wrapt==1.12.1
+xarray==0.16.2
+zict==2.0.0
+zipp==3.4.0