Quick Start Guide
=================

This chapter provides MPAS-Atmosphere users with a high-level description of the general process of building and running the model. It is meant simply as a brief overview of the process, with more detailed descriptions of each step are provided in later chapters.

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Building MPAS-A
---------------

**The build process generally uses the following steps.** 

#.   Build or locate an MPI implementation (MPICH, OpenMPI, MVAPICH2, MPT, etc; see the "Prerequisites" section in `Building MPAS`_)
#.   Build the serial netCDF library (see the "NetCDF" subsection in `Building MPAS`_)
#.   Build the parallel-netCDF library (see the "Parallel-NetCDF" subsection in `Building MPAS`_)
#.   Build the Parallel I/O (PIO) library (see the "PIO" subsection in `Building MPAS`_)
#.   (OPTIONAL) build the METIS package (See the "Graph Partitioning with METIS" section in `Preparing Meshes`_)
#.   Obtain the MPAS-Model source code
#.   Build the *init_atmosphere* and *atmosphere* cores (see the "Compiling MPAS" section in `Building MPAS`_)

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After completing these steps, the following executable files should be available in the top-level MPAS-Model directory.

*   *init_atmosphere_model*
*   *atmosphere_model*
*   *build_tables*

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Running an MPAS-A Global Simulation
-----------------------------------

.. note::
   The three executables (discussed in the above section) must be available prior to running the code.

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**A basic global simulation can be performed using the following steps.**

#.   Create a run directory
#.   Link the *init_atmosphere_model* and *atmosphere_model* executables to the run directory, as well as physics lookup tables (*src/core_atmosphere/physics/physics wrf/files/\**)
#.   Copy the *namelist.\**, *streams.\**, and *stream_list.\** files to the run directory.
#.   Edit the namelist files and the stream files appropriately (`see Running the MPAS Non-hydrostatic Atmosphere Model`_)
#.   (OPTIONAL) prepare meshes for the simulation (`see Preparing Meshes`_).
#.   Run *init_atmosphere_model* to create initial conditions (see the "Creating Idealized ICs" or "Creating Real-data ICs" section from `Running the MPAS Non-hydrostatic Atmosphere Model`_).
#.   Run *atmosphere_model* to perform model integration (see "Running the Model" from `Running the MPAS Non-hydrostatic Atmosphere Model`_).

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.. rst-class:: horizbuttons-next-m

* `Next: Building MPAS ->`_

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.. _`Building MPAS`: ./building_mpas.html
.. _`See Preparing Meshes`: ./preparing_meshes.html
.. _`Preparing Meshes`: ./preparing_meshes.html
.. _`See Running the MPAS Non-hydrostatic Atmosphere Model`: ./running.html
.. _`Running the MPAS Non-hydrostatic Atmosphere Model`: ./running.html
.. _`Next: Building MPAS ->`: ./building_mpas.html