Appendix B: Model Namelist Options


This chapter summarizes the complete set of namelist options available when running the MPAS non-hydrostatic atmosphere model. All date-time string specifications are of the form described at the beginning of Appendix A.



B.1       nhyd_model

config_time_integration (character)

Units

Description

Time integration scheme (hidden by default)

Possible Values

‘SRK3’ (default: SRK3)


config_time_integration_order (integer)

Units

Description

Order for RK time integration

Possible Values

2 or 3 (default: 2)


config_dt (real)

Units

s

Description

Model time step in seconds

Possible Values

Positive real values (default: 720.0)


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

Starting time for model simulation

Possible Values

‘YYYY-MM-DD_hh:mm:ss’ (default: none)


config_stop_time (character)

Units

Description

Stopping time for model simulation (hidden by default)

Possible Values

‘YYYY-MM-DD_hh:mm:ss’ (default: none)


config_run_duration (character)

Units

Description

Length of model simulation

Possible Values

[DDD]_hh:mm:ss (default: 5_00:00:00


config_split_dynamics_transport (logical)

Units

Description

Whether to super-cycle scalar transport

Possible Values

Logical values (default: true)


config_number_of_sub_steps (integer)

Units

Description

Number of acoustic steps per full RK step

Possible Values

Positive, even integer values, typically 2 or 6 depending on transport splitting (default: 2)


config_dynamics_split_steps (integer)

Units

Description

When config_split_dynamics_transport = T, the number of RK steps per transport step

Possible Values

Positive integer values (default: 3)


config_h_mom_eddy_visc2 (real)

Units

m 2 s -1

Description

\(\nabla^2\) eddy viscosity for horizontal diffusion of momentum (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive real values (default: 0.0)


config_h_mom_eddy_visc4 (real)

Units

m 4 s -1

Description

\(\nabla^2\) eddy hyper-viscosity for horizontal diffusion of momentum (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive real values (default: 0.0)


config_v_mom_eddy_visc2 (real)

Units

m 2 s -1

Description

\(\nabla^2\) eddy viscosity for vertical diffusion of momentum (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive real values (default: 0.0)


config_h_theta_eddy_visc2 (real)

Units

m 2 s -1

Description

\(\nabla^2\) eddy viscosity for horizontal diffusion of theta (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive real values (default: 0.0)


config_h_theta_eddy_visc4 (real)

Units

m 4 s -1

Description

\(\nabla^2\) eddy hyper-viscosity for horizontal diffusion of theta (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive real values (default: 0.0)


config_v_theta_eddy_visc2 (real)

Units

m 2 s -1

Description

\(\nabla^2\) eddy viscosity for vertical diffusion of theta (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive real values (default: 0.0)


config_horiz_mixing (character)

Units

Description

Formulation of horizontal mixing

Possible Values

‘2d_fixed’ or ‘2d_smagorinsky’ (default: 2d_smagorinsky)


config_len_disp (real)

Units

m

Description

Horizontal length scale, used by the Smagorinsky formulation of horizontal diffusion and by 3-d divergence damping (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive real values. A zero value implies that the length scale is prescribed by the nominalMinDc value in the input file. (default: 0.0)


config_visc4_2dsmag (real)

Units

Description

Scaling coefficient of \(\delta x^3\) to obtain \(\nabla^4\) diffusion coefficient

Possible Values

Non-negative real values (default: 0.05)


config_del4u_div_factor (real)

Units

Description

Scaling factor for the divergent component of \(\nabla^4u\) calculation (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive real values (default: 10.0)


config_w_adv_order (integer)

Units

Description

Horizontal advection order for w (hidden by default)

Possible Values

2, 3, or 4 (default: 3)


config_theta_adv_order (integer)

Units

Description

Horizontal advection order for theta (hidden by default)

Possible Values

2, 3, or 4 (default: 3)


config_scalar_adv_order (integer)

Units

Description

Horizontal advection order for scalars (hidden by default)

Possible Values

2, 3, or 4 (default: 3)


config_u_vadv_order (integer)

Units

Description

Vertical advection order for normal velocities (u) (hidden by default)

Possible Values

2, 3, or 4 (default: 3)


config_w_vadv_order (integer)

Units

Description

Vertical advection order for w (hidden by default)

Possible Values

2, 3, or 4 (default: 3)


config_theta_vadv_order (integer)

Units

Description

Vertical advection order for theta (hidden by default)

Possible Values

2, 3, or 4 (default: 3)


config_scalar_vadv_order (integer)

Units

Description

Vertical advection order for scalars (hidden by default)

Possible Values

2, 3, or 4 (default: 3)


config_scalar_advection (logical)

Units

Description

Whether to advect scalar fields

Possible Values

true or false (default: true)


config_positive_definite (logical)

Units

Description

Whether to enable positive-definite advection of scalars (hidden by default)

Possible Values

true or false (default: false)


config_monotonic (logical)

Units

Description

Whether to enable monotonic limiter in scalar advection

Possible Values

true or false (default: true)


config_coef_3rd_order (real)

Units

Description

Upwinding coefficient in the 3rd order advection scheme

Possible Values

0 ≤ config_coef_3rd_order ≤ 1 (default: 0.25)


config_smagorinsky_coef (real)

Units

Description

Dimensionless empirical parameter relating the strain tensor to the eddy viscosity in the Smagorinsky turbulence model (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Real values typically in the range of 0.1 to 0.4 (default: 0.125)


config_mix_full (logical)

Units

Description

Mix full \(\theta\) and \(u\) fields, or mix perturbation from initial state (hidden by default)

Possible Values

true or false (default: true)


config_epssm (real)

Units

Description

Off-centering parameter for the vertically implicit acoustic integration

Possible Values

Positive real values (default: 0.1)


config_smdiv (real)

Units

Description

3-d divergence damping coefficient

Possible Values

Positive real values (default: 0.1)


config_apvm_upwinding (real)

Units

Description

Amount of upwinding in APVM (hidden by default)

Possible Values

0 ≤ config_apvm_upwinding ≤ 1 (default: 0.5)


config_h_ScaleWithMesh (logical)

Units

Description

Scale eddy viscosities with mesh-density function for horizontal diffusion (hidden by default)

Possible Values

true or false (default: true)


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_relax_zone_divdamp_coef (real)

Units

Description

Coefficient for the divergent component of the Laplacian filter of momentum in the relaxation zone (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive real values (default: 6.0)




B.2       damping

config_zd (real)

Units

m

Description

Height MSL to begin w-damping profile

Possible Values

Positive real values (default: 22000.0)


config_xnutr (real)

Units

Description

Maximum w-damping coefficient at model top

Possible Values

0 ≤ config_xnutr ≤ 1 (default: )


config_mpas_cam_coef (real)

Units

Description

Coefficient for scaling the 2nd-order horizontal mixing in the mpas_cam absorbing layer (hidden by default)

Possible Values

0 ≤ config_mpas_cam_coef ≤ 1, standard value is 0.2 (default: 0.0)


config_number_cam_damping_levels (integer)

Units

Description

Number of layers in which to apply cam 2nd-order horizontal filter top of model; viscosity linearly ramps to zero by layer number from the top (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive integer values (default: 4)


config_rayleigh_damp_u (logical)

Units

Description

Whether to apply Rayleigh damping on horizontal velocity in the top-most model levels. The number of levels is specified by the config_number_rayleigh_damp_u_levels option, and the damping timescale is specified by the config_rayleigh_damp_u_timescale_days option (hidden by default)

Possible Values

true or false (default: false)


config_rayleigh_damp_u_timescale_days (real)

Units

days

Description

Timescale, in days (86400 s), for the Rayleigh damping on horizontal velocity in the top-most model levels (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive real values (default: 5.0)


config_number_rayleigh_damp_u_levels (integer)

Units

Description

Number of layers in which to apply Rayleigh damping on horizontal velocity at top of model; damping linearly ramps to zero by layer number from the top (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive integer values (default: 6)




B.3       limited_area

config_apply_lbcs (logical)

Units

m

Description

Whether to apply lateral boundary conditions

Possible Values

true or false; this option must be set to true for limited-area simulations and false for global simulations (default: false)




B.4       io

config_restart_timestamp_name (character)

Units

Description

Filename used to store most recent restart time stamp (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Any valid filename (default: restart_timestamp)


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 value, ≤ (# MPI tasks) / config_pio_num_iotasks (default: 1)




B.5       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.)




B.6       restart

config_do_restart (logical)

Units

Description

Whether this run of the model is to restart from a previous restart file

Possible Values

true or false (default: false)


config_do_DAcycling (logical)

Units

Description

Whether to re-compute coupled fields \(\theta_{m}\), \(\tilde{\rho}\), \(\rho u\), etc. from uncoupled fields when restarting the model; used for cycling DA experiments that analyze uncoupled fields in restart files (hidden by default)

Possible Values

true or false (default: false)




B.7       printout

config_print_global_minmax_vel (logical)

Units

Description

Whether to print the global min/max of horizontal normal velocity and vertical velocity each timestep

Possible Values

true or false (default: true)


config_print_detailed_minmax_vel (logical)

Units

Description

Whether to print the global min/max of horizontal normal velocity and vertical velocity each timestep, along with the location in the domain where those extrema occurred

Possible Values

true or false (default: false)


config_print_global_minmax_sca (logical)

Units

Description

Whether to print the global min/mx of scalar fields each timestep (hidden by default)

Possible Values

true or false (default: false)




B.8       IAU

config_IAW_option (character)

Units

Description

Incremental Analysis Update scheme

Possible Values

‘off’ or ‘on’; ‘off’ turns off IAW; ‘on’ uses equal weighting of increments across the IAU window (default: off)


config_IAU_window_length_s (real)

Units

s

Description

Length of window over which analysis increments are applied

Possible Values

Non-negative real values (default: 21600.)




B.9       assimilation

config_jedi_da (logical)

Units

Description

Whether this run is within the JEDI data assimilation framework; used to add temperature and specific humidity as diagnostics (hidden by default)

Possible Values

true or false (default: false)




B.10       development

config_halo_exch_method (character)

Units

Description

Method to use for exchanging halos (hidden by default)

Possible Values

‘mpas_dmpar’, ‘mpas_halo’ (default: mpas_halo)




B.11       physics

input_soil_data (character)

escape:

Units

Description

Input soil use classification (hidden by default)

Possible Values


input_soil_temperature_lab (integer)

Units

Description

Days over which the deep soil temperature is computed using skin temperature (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive integers (default: 140)


num_soil_layers (integer)

Units

Description

Number of soil layers in Noah land surface scheme (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive integers; for Noah LSM, must be set to 4 (default: 4)


months (integer)

Units

Description

Number of months per year (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive integer values; DO NOT CHANGE (default: 12)


noznlev (integer)

Units

Description

Number of prescribed pressure levels for input climatological ozone volume mixing ratios (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive integers (default: 59)


naerlev (integer)

Units

Description

Number of prescribed pressure levels for input climatological aerosol mixing ratios (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive integers (default: 29)


camdim1 (integer)

Units

Description

Dimension of CAM radiation absorption save array (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive integers (default: 4)


config_frac_seaice (logial)

Units

Description

Logical for configuration of fractional seaice (hidden by default)

Possible Values

.true. for seaice between 0 and 1; .false. for seaice equal to 0 or 1 (flag) (default: true)


config_sfc_albedo (logical)

Units

Description

Logical for configuration of surface albedo (hidden by default)

Possible Values

.true. for climatologically varying surface albedo; .false. for fixed input data (default: true)


config_sfc_snowalbedo (logical)

Units

Description

Logical for configuration of maximum surface albedo for snow (hidden by default)

Possible Values

.true. for geographical distributions; .false. for fixed input data (default: true)


config_sst_update (logical)

Units

Description

Logical for configuration of sea-surface temperature

Possible Values

.true. for time-varying sea-surface temperatures; .false., otherwise (default: false)


config_sstdiurn_update (logical)

Units

Description

Logical for configuration of diurnal cycle of sea-surface temperatures

Possible Values

.true. for applying a diurnal cycle to sea-surface temperatures; .false., otherwise (default: false)


config_deepsoiltemp_udpate (logical)

Units

Description

Logical for configuration of deep soil temperatures

Possible Values

.true. for slowly time-varying deep soil temperatures; .false., otherwise (default: false)


config_o3climatology (logical)

Units

Description

Logical for configuration of input ozone data in RRTMG long- and short-wave radiation (hidden by default)

Possible Values

.true. for using monthly-varying ozone data; .false. for using fixed vertical profile (default: true)


config_microp_re (logical)

Units

Description

Logical for calculation of the effective radii for cloud water, cloud ice, and snow (hidden by default)

Possible Values

.true. for calculating effective radii; .false. for using defaults in RRTMG radiation (default: false)


config_ysu_pblmix (logical)

Units

Description

Logical for turning on/off top-down, radiation-driven mixing (hidden by default)

Possible Values

.true. to turn on top-down radiation-driven mixing; .false., otherwise (default: false)


config_n_microp (integer)

Units

Description

Number of microphysics time-steps per physics time-steps (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive integers (default: 1)


config_radtlw_interval (character)

Units

Description

time interval between calls to parameterization of long-wave radiation

Possible Values

‘DD_HH:MM:SS’ or ‘none’ (default: 00:30:00)


config_radtsw_interval (character)

Units

Description

time interval between calls to parameterization of short-wave radiation

Possible Values

‘DD_HH:MM:SS’ or ‘none’ (default: 00:30:00)


config_conv_interval (character)

Units

Description

Time interval between calls to parameterization of convection (hidden by default)

Possible Values

‘DD_HH:MM:SS’ or ‘none’ (default: none)


config_pbl_interval (character)

Units

Description

Time interval between calls to parameterization of planetary boundary layer (hidden by default)

Possible Values

‘DD_HH:MM:SS’ or ‘none’ (default: none)


config_camrad_abs_update (character)

Units

Description

Time interval between updates of absorption/emission coefficients in CAM radiation (hidden by default)

Possible Values

‘DD_HH:MM:SS’ or ‘none’ (default: 06:00:00)


config_greeness_update (character)

Units

Description

Time interval between updates of greeness fraction (hidden by default)

Possible Values

‘DD_HH:MM:SS’ or ‘none’ (default: 24:00:00)


config_bucket_update (character)

Units

Description

Time interval between updates of accumulated rain and radiation diagnostics

Possible Values

‘DD_HH:MM:SS’ or ‘none’ (default: none)


config_physics_suite (character)

Units

Description

Choice of physics suite

Possible Values

‘mesoscale_reference’, ‘convection_permitting’, or ‘none’ (default: mesoscale_reference)


config_microp_scheme (character)

Units

Description

Configuration for cloud microphysics schemes (hidden by default)

Possible Values

‘suite’, ‘mp_wsm6’, ‘mp_thompson’, ‘mp_kessler’, ‘off’ (default: suite)


config_convection_scheme (character)

Units

Description

Configuration for convection schemes (hidden by default)

Possible Values

‘suite’, ‘cu_kain_fritsch’, ‘cu_tiedtke’, ‘cu_ntiedtke’, ‘cu_grell_freitas’, ‘off’ (default: suite)


config_lsm_scheme (character)

Units

Description

Configuration for land-surface schemes (hidden by default)

Possible Values

‘suite’, ‘noah’, ‘off’ (default: suite)


config_pbl_scheme (character)

Units

Description

Configuration for planetary boundary layer schemes (hidden by default)

Possible Values

‘suite’, ‘bl_ysu’, ‘bl_mynn’, ‘off’ (default: suite)


config_gwdo_scheme (character)

Units

Description

Configuration of gravity wave drag over orography (hidden by default)

Possible Values

‘suite’, ‘bl_ysu_gwdo’, ‘off’ (default: suite)


config_radt_cld_scheme (character)

Units

Description

Configuration for calculation of horizontal cloud fraction (hidden by default)

Possible Values

‘suite’, ‘cld_fraction’, ‘cld_incidence’ (default: suite)


config_radt_lw_scheme (character)

Units

Description

Configuration for long-wave radiation schemes (hidden by default)

Possible Values

‘suite’, ‘rrtmg_lw’, ‘cam_lw’, ‘off’ (default: suite)


config_radt_sw_scheme (character)

Units

Description

Configuration for short-wave radiation schemes (hidden by default)

Possible Values

‘suite’, ‘rrtmg_sw’, ‘cam_sw’, ‘off’ (default: suite)


config_sfclayer_scheme (character)

Units

Description

Configuration for surface-layer schemes (hidden by default)

Possible Values

‘suite’, ‘sf_monin_obukhov’, ‘sf_mynn’, ‘off’ (default: suite)


config_gfconv_closure_deep (integer)

Units

Description

Closure option for deep convection in Grell-Freitas convection scheme (hidden by default)

Possible Values

0 (default: 0)


config_gfconv_closure_shallow (integer)

Units

Description

Closure option for shallow convection in Grell-Freitas convection scheme (hidden by default)

Possible Values

8 (default: 8)


config_mynn_tkeadvect (logical)

Units

Description

= true: do MYNN TKE advection (hidden by default)

Possible Values

true or false (default: false)


config_mynn_tkebudget (integer)

Units

Description

=1: option to add the MYNN TKE budget terms to output (hidden by default)

Possible Values

0 or 1 (default: 0)


config_mynn_closure (real)

Units

Description

2.5 level or 3.0 level for the MYNN TKE turbulence closure (hidden by default)

Possible Values

2.0, 2.5, 3.0 (default: 2.5)


config_mynn_cloudpdf (integer)

Units

Description

Switch to different cloud PDFs to represent subgrid clouds in the MYNN PBL scheme (hidden by default)

Possible Values

0, 1, 2 (default: 2)


config_mynn_mixlength (integer)

Units

Description

Mixing length in the MYNN PBL scheme;
=0: Nakanishi and Niino, 2009
=1: RAP/HRRR
=2: Ito et al., 2015
(hidden by default)

Possible Values

0, 1, 2 (default: 2)


config_mynn_stfunc (integer)

Units

Description

Option to switch flux profile relationship for surface;
=0: Dyer-Hicks
=1: Cheng-Brustaert
(hidden by default)

Possible Values

0, 1 (default: 1)


config_mynn_topdown (integer)

Units

Description

Option to add top-down diffusion driven by cloud-top radiative cooling (hidden by default)

Possible Values

0, 1 (default: 0)


config_mynn_scaleaware

Units

Description

Option to turn on the scale-aware option (hidden by default)

Possible Values

0, 1 (default: 1)


config_mynn_dheat_opt (integer)

Units

Description

Option to activate heating due to dissipation of TKE (hidden by default)

Possible Values

0, 1 (default: 1)


config_mynn_edmf (integer)

Units

Description

=1: activate the EDMF option in the MYNN PBL scheme (=0 otherwise) (hidden by default)

Possible Values

0, 1 (default: 1)


config_mynn_edmf_dd (integer)

Units

Description

=1: activate the EDMF downdraft option in the MYNN PBL scheme (=0 otherwise) (hidden by default)

Possible Values

0, 1 (default: 0)


config_mynn_edmf_mom (integer)

Units

Description

=1: activate momentum transport with the EDMF option for the MYNN PBL scheme (=0 otherwise) (hidden by default)

Possible Values

0, 1 (default: 0)


config_mynn_edmf_tke (integer)

Units

Description

=1: activate TKE transport with the EDMF option for the MYNN PBL scheme (=0 otherwise) (hidden by default)

Possible Values

0, 1 (default: 0)


config_mynn_edmf_output (integer)

Units

Description

=0: suppress the allocation of variables needed in the EDMF option for the MYNN PBL scheme (=0 otherwise) (hidden by default)

Possible Values

0, 1 (default: 0)


config_mynn_mixscalars (integer)

Units

Description

=1: activate mixing of scalars in the MYNN PBL scheme (=0 otherwise) (hidden by default)

Possible Values

0, 1 (default: 1)


config_mynn_mixclouds (integer)

Units

Description

=1: activate TKE mixing of cloud condensates in the MYNN PBL scheme (=0 otherwise) (hidden by default)

Possible Values

0, 1 (default: 1)


config_mynn_mixqt (integer)

Units

Description

=0: activate mixing of moisture species separately
=1: activate mixing of total water in the MYNN PBL scheme (=0 otherwise) (hidden by default)

Possible Values

0, 1 (default: 0)


config_bucket_radt (real)

Units

Description

Threshold above which accumulated radiation diagnostics are reset (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive real values (default: 1.0e9)


config_bucket_rainc (real)

Units

Description

Threshold above which accumulated convective precipitation is reset (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive real values (default: 100.0)


config_bucket_rainnc (real)

Units

Description

Threshold above which the accumulated grid-scale precipitation is reset (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Positive real values (default: 100.0)


config_oml1d (logical)

Units

Description

Whether to activate the 1-d ocean mixed-layer model (hidden by default)

Possible Values

true or false (default: false)


config_oml_hml0 (real)

Units

m

Description

If greater than zero, provides the constanct, intial mixed-layer depth; if zero, initial mixed-layer depth will be taken from the ‘oml_initial’ field (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Non-negative real values (default: 30.0)


config_oml_gamma (real)

Units

K m -1

Description

Deep water lapse rate in 1-d OML model (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Real values (default: 0.14)


config_oml_relaxation_time (real)

Units

s

Description

Relaxation time to initial values in 1-d OML (hidden by default)

Possible Values

Non-negative real values (default: 864000)




B.12       soundings

config_sounding_interval (character)

Units

Description

Interval between writing of soundings; a value of ‘none’ disables writing of soundings

Possible Values

‘[DDD]_hh:mm:ss’ or ‘none’ (default: none)