Appendix A : Initialization Namelist Options¶

This page summarizes the complete set of namelist options available when running the MPAS non-hydrostatic atmosphere initialization core. The applicability of certain options depends on the type of initial conditions to be created - idealized or ‘real-data’ - and such applicability is identified in the description when it exists.

Date-time strings throughout all MPAS namelists assume a common format of the form [DDD]_HH:MM:SS[.sss], where

DDD : integer number of days with any number of digits
HH : two-digit hour value
MM : two-digit minute value
SS : two-digit second value
sss : fractions of a second with any number of digits
any part of the time interval format in square brackets ([ ]) may be omitted, and if days are omitted, HH may be either a one- or two-digit hour specification

Time instants (e.g., start time or end time) are of the form YYYY-MM-DD[_HH:MM:SS[.sss]], where

YYYY : integer year with any number of digits
MM : two-digit month value
DD : two-digit day value
HH:MM:SS.sss : a time with the same format as in a time interval specification

Note

For both time instants and time intervals, a value of ‘none’ represents ‘no value’.

A.1 nhyd_model¶

config_init_case (integer)

Units
Description	Type of initial conditions to create: 1 = Jablonowski & Williamson barolinic wave (no initial perturbation) 2 = Jablonowski & Williamson barolinic wave (with initial perturbation) 3 = Jablonowski & Williamson barolinic wave (with normal-mode pertur- bation) 4 = squall line 5 = super-cell 6 = mountain wave 7 = real-data initial conditions from, e.g., GFS 8 = surface field (SST, seaice) update file for use with real-data simulations 9 = lateral boundary conditions update file for use with real-data simulations 13 = CAM-MPAS 3-d grid with specified topography and zeta levels
Possible Values	1 - 9 (default: 7)

config_calendar_type (character)

Units
Description	Simulation calendar type (hidden by default)
Possible Values	‘gregorian’, ‘gregorian noleap’ (default: gregorian)

config_start_time (character)

Units
Description	Time to begin processing first-guess data (cases 7, 8, and 9 only)
Possible Values	‘YYYY-MM-DD_hh:mm:ss’ (default: 2010-10-23_00:00:00)

config_stop_time (character)

Units
Description	Time to end processing first-guess data (cases 8 and 9 only)
Possible Values	‘YYYY-MM-DD_hh:mm:ss’ (default: 2010-10-23_00:00:00)

config_theta_adv_order (integer)

Units
Description	Horizontal advection order for theta
Possible Values	2, 3, or 4 (default: 3)

config_coef_3rd_order (real)

Units
Description	Upwinding coefficient in the 3rd order advection scheme
Possible Values	0 ≤ congi_coef_3rd_order ≤ 1 (default: 0.25)

config_num_halos (integer)

Units
Description	Number of halo layers for fields (hidden by default)
Possible Values	Integer values, typically 2 or 3; DO NOT CHANGE (default: 2)

config_interface_projection (character)

Units
Description	Projecting layer values to the interface, linear vertical interpolation or integral
Possible Values	‘linear_interpolation’ or ‘layer_integral’ (layer average value) (default: linear_interpolation)

A.2 dimensions¶

config_nvertlevels (integer)

Units
Description	The number of vertical levels to be used in the model
Possible Values	Positive integer values (default: 55)

config_nsoillevels (integer)

Units
Description	The number of vertical levels needed by LSM in the model (case 7 only)
Possible Values	Positive integer values (default: 4)

config_nfglevels (integer)

Units
Description	The number of atmospheric levels (including surface and sea-level) in the first-guess dataset (cases 7 and 9 only)
Possible Values	Positive integer values (default: 38)

config_nfgsoillevels (integer)

Units
Description	The number of vertical soil levels in the first-guess dataset (case 7 only)
Possible Values	Positive integer values (default: 4)

config_months (integer)

Units
Description	The number of months in a year (hidden by default)
Possible Values	Positive integer values (default: 12)

A.3 data_sources¶

config_geog_data_path (character)

Units
Description	Path to the WPS static data files (case 7 only)
Possible Values	Any valid path (default: /glade/work/wrfhelp/WPS_GEOG/)

config_met_prefix (character)

Units
Description	Filename prefix of ungrib intermediate file to use for initial conditions (cases 7 and 9 only)
Possible Values	Any alpha-numeric string (default: CFSR)

config_sfc_prefix (character)

Units
Description	Filename prefix of ungrib intermediate file to use for SST and seaice (cases 7 and 8 only)
Possible Values	Any alpha-numeric string (default: SST)

config_fg_interval (integer)

Units
Description	Interval between intermediate files (cases 8 and 9 only)
Possible Values	[DDD]_hh:mm:ss (default: 86400)

config_landuse_data (character)

Units
Description	The land use classification to use (case 7 only)
Possible Values	‘USGS’ or ‘MODIFIED_IGBP_MODIS_NOAH’ (default: MODIFIED_IGBP_MODIS_NOAH)

config_topo_data (character)

Units
Description	The topography dataset to use for the model terrain and for GWDO static fields (case 7 only)
Possible Values	‘GTOPO30’ or ‘GMTED2010’ (default: GMTED2010)

config_vegfrac_data (character)

Units
Description	The climatological monthly vegetation fraction dataset to use (case 7 only)
Possible Values	‘MODIS’ or ‘NCEP’ (default: MODIS)

config_albedo_data (character)

Units
Description	The climatological monthly albedo dataset to use (case 7 only)
Possible Values	‘MODIS’ or ‘NCEP’ (default: MODIS)

config_maxsnowalbedo_data (character)

Units
Description	The maximum snow albedo dataset to use (case 7 only)
Possible Values	‘MODIS’ or ‘NCEP’ (default: MODIS)

config_supersample_factor (integer)

Units
Description	The supersampling factor to be used for MODIS maximum snow albedo and monthly albedo datasets (case 7 only)
Possible Values	Positive integer values (default: 3)

config_30s_supersample_factor (integer)

Units
Description	The supersampling factor to be used for 30s terrain, MODIS land use, soil category, and MODIS FPAR monthly vegetation fraction (case 7 only)
Possible Values	Positive integer values (default: 1)

config_use_spechumd (logical)

Units
Description	Whether to use specific humidity as the first-guess moisture variables. If this option is false, relative humidity will be used.
Possible Values	true or false (default: false)

A.4 vertical_grid¶

config_ztop (real)

Units	m
Description	Model top height
Possible Values	Positive real values (default: 30000.0 )

config_nsmterrain (integer)

Units
Description	Number of smoothing passes to apply to the interpolated terrain field
Possible Values	Non-negative integer values (default: 1)

config_smooth_surfaces (logical)

Units
Description	Whether to smooth zeta surfaces
Possible Values	true or false (default: true )

config_dzmin (real)

Units
Description	Minimum thickness of layers as a fraction of nominal thickness
Possible Values	Real values in the interval (0,1) (default: 0.3 )

config_nsm (integer)

Units
Description	Maximum number of smoothing passes for coordinate surfaces
Possible Values	Positive integer values (default: 30)

config_tc_vertical_grid (logical)

Units
Description	Whether to use the vertical layer profile that was developed for use in real-time TC experiments
Possible Values	true or false (default: true)

config_specified_zeta_levels (character)

Units
Description	The naame of a text file containing a list of vertical coordinate (zeta) values in increasing order at layer interfaces (hidden by default)
Possible Values	Any valid filename (default: )

config_blend_bdy_terrain (logical)

Units
Description	Whether to blend terrain along domain boundaries with first-guess terrain. Only useful for limited-area domains.
Possible Values	true or false (default: false )

A.5 interpolation_control¶

config_extrap_airtemp (character)

Units
Description	Method of extrapolation of air temperature above/below first-guess levels
Possible Values	‘constant’ (last valid value), ‘linear’ (linear extrapolation based on last two values), ‘lapse-rate’ (0.0065 K/m from last valid value) (default: lapse-rate)

A.6 preproc_stages¶

config_static_interp (logical)

Units
Description	Whether to interpolate WPS static data (case 7 only)
Possible Values	true or false (default: true)

config_native_gwd_static (logical)

Units
Description	Whether to recompute subgrid-scale orography statistics directly on the native MPAS mesh (case 7 only)
Possible Values	true or false (default: true)

config_gwd_cell_scaling (real)

Units
Description	Scaling factor for the effective grid cell diameter used in computation of GWD static fields (hidden by default)
Possible Values	Positive real values (default: 1.0)

config_vertical_grid (logical)

Units
Description	Whether to general vertical grid
Possible Values	true or false (default: true)

config_met_interp (logical)

Units
Description	Whether to interpolate first-guess fields from intermediate file
Possible Values	true or false (default: true)

config_input_sst (logical)

Units
Description	Whether to re-compute SST and seaice fields from surface input data set; should be set to .true. when running case 8
Possible Values	true or false (default: false)

config_frac_seaice ()

Units
Description	Whether to switch seaice threshold from 0.5 to 0.02
Possible Values	true or false (default: true)

A.7 physics¶

config_tsk_seaice_threshold (real)

Units	K
Description	Surface temperature threshold below which water points are set to seaice points (hidden by default)
Possible Values	Positive real values (default: 100.)

A.8 io¶

config_pio_num_iotasks (integer)

Units
Description	Number of tasks to perform file I/O
Possible Values	Integer valued, 0 ≤ config_pio_num_iotasks ≤ (# MPI tasks); 0 indicates all tasks perform I/O (default: 0)

config_pio_stride (integer)

Units
Description	Stride between file I/O tasks
Possible Values	Integer valued, 0 ≤ (# MPI tasks) / config_pio_num_iotasks (default: 1)

A.9 decomposition¶

config_block_decomp_file_prefix (character)

Units
Description	Prefix of graph decomposition file, to be suffixed with the MPI task count
Possible Values	Any valid filename (default: x1.40962.graph.info.part.)

config_number_of_blocks (integer)

Units
Description	Number of blocks to assign to each MPI task (hidden by default)
Possible Values	Positive integer values (default: 0)

config_explicit_proc_decomp (logical)

Units
Description	Whether to use an explicit mapping of blocks to MPI tasks (hidden by default)
Possible Values	true or false (default: false)

config_proc_decomp_file_prefix (character)

Units
Description	Prefix of block mapping file (hidden by default)
Possible Values	Any valid filename (default: graph.info.part.)

Next: Appendix B: Model Namelist Options ->