WRF Physics References

Below are all supported physics options in the WRF model. Most have publications that provide detailed information about each scheme.

Microphysics

The microphysics setting is determined by the mp_physics parameter in the &physics namelist.input record.

mp_physics=	Scheme Name	Publication
1	Kessler	Kessler 1969
2	Purdue Lin	Chen and Sun 2002
3	WRF Single-moment 3-class	Hong et al. 2004
4	WRF Single-moment 5-class	Hong et al. 2004
5	Eta (Ferrier)	NOAA 2001
6	WRF Single-moment 6-class	Hong and Lim 2006
7	Goddard	Tao et al. 1989 Tao et al. 2016
8	Thompson	Thompson et al. 2008
9	Milbrandt-Yau Double Moment	Milbrandt and Yau 2005a Milbrandt and Yau 2005b
10	Morrison Double-moment	Morrison et al. 2009
11	CAM V5.1 2-moment 5-class	CESM1.0: CAM Documentation
13	Stony-Brook University	Lin et al. 2011
14	WRF Double-moment 5-class	Lim and Hong 2010
16	WRF Double-moment 6-class	Lim and Hong 2010
18	NSSL 2-moment	Mansell et al. 2010
24	WRF Single-moment 7-class	Bae et al. 2018
26	WRF Double-moment 7-class	Bae et al. 2018
28	Thompson Aerosol-aware	Thompson and Eidhammer 2014
38	Thompson Aerosol-aware with Hail and Graupel	Thompson and Eidhammer 2014
50	Morrison and Milbrandt Predicted Particle Property (P3)	Morrison et al. 2015
51	Morrison and Milbrandt Predicted Particle Property (P3-nc)	Morrison et al. 2015
52	Morrison and Milbrandt Predicted Particle Property (P3-2ice)	Morrison et al. 2015
53	Morrison and Milbrandt Predicted Particle Property (P3-3moment)	Morrison et al. 2015
55	Jensen ISHMAEL	Jensen et al. 2017
56	National Taiwan University (NTU)	Tsai and Chen 2020

Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL)

The planetary boundary layer (PBL) physics setting in WRF is determined by the bl_pbl_physics parameter in the &physics namelist.input record.

bl_pbl_physics=	Scheme Name	Publication
1	Yonsei University (YSU)	Hong et al. 2006
2	Mellor-Yamada-Janjic (MYJ)	Janjic 1994 Mesinger 1993
3	NCEP GFS	Hong and Pan 1996
4	Quasi-normal Scale Elimination (QNSE)	Sukoriansky et al. 2005
5	Mellor-Yamada Nakanishi Niino (MYNN)	Nakanishi and Niino 2006 Nakanishi and Niino 2009 Olson et al. 2019
7	Asymmetric Convection Model 2 (ACM2)	Pleim 2007
8	Bougeault-Lacarrere (BouLac)	Bougeault and Lacarrere 1989
9	University of Washington (TKE)	Bretherton and Park 2009
10	TEMF	Angevine et al. 2010
11	Shin-Hong Scale-aware	Shin and Hong 2015
12	Grenier-Bretherton-McCaa	Grenier and Bretherton 2001
16	TKE(E) - TKE Dissipation Rate (Epsilon) (EEPS)	Zhang et al. 2020
17	K-epsilon-theta 2	Zonato et al. 2022
99	MRF	Hong and Pan 1996

The following are options related to the PBL and can be set in the &physics namelist.input record.

Namelist Option	Scheme Name	Publication
gwd_opt=1	Gravity Wave Drag	Hong et al. 2008 Kim and Arakawa 1995 Choi and Hong 2015
windfarm_opt=1 or 2	Wind-farm (drag)	Fitch et al. 2012
grav_settling=2	FogDES	Katata 2014

Cumulus Parameterization

The cumulus parameterization physics setting in WRF is determined by the cu_physics parameter in the &physics namelist.input record.

cu_physics=	Scheme Name	Publication
1	Kain-Fritsch	Kain 2004
2	Betts-Miller-Janjic (BMJ)	Janjic 1994
3	Grell-Freitas (GF)	Grell and Freitas 2014
4	Old Simplified Arakawa-Shubert (Old SAS)	Pan and Wu 1995
5	Grell 3D Ensemble (G3)	Grell 1993 Grell and Devenyi 2002
6	Tiedtke	Tiedtke 1989 Zhang et al. 2011
7	Zhang-McFarlane	Zhang and McFarlane 1995
10	Kain-Fritsch Cumulus Potential	Berg et al. 2013
11	Multi-scale Kain-Fritsch	Zheng et al. 2016 Glotfelty et al. 2019
14	New Simplified Arakawa-Schubert	Han et al. 2011 Kwon and Hong 2017
16	New Tiedtke	Zhang and Wang 2017
93	Grell-Devenyi Ensemble (GD)	Grell and Devenyi 2002
99	Old Kain-Fritsch	Kain and Fritsch 1990

The following are options related to the Kain-Fritsch cumulus parameterization scheme and can be set in the &physics namelist.input record.

Namelist Option	Scheme Name	Publication
kfeta_trigger=2	Moisture-advection-based Trigger	Ma and Tan 2009
kfeta_trigger=3	RH-dependent Additional Perturbation	No publication available

Radiation

The radiation physics settings in WRF are determined by the ra_sw_physics (short-wave) and ra_lw_physics (long-wave) parameters in the &physics namelist.input record. Many of the options are valid for both long-wave and short-wave radiation, but a few are specific to only one. Those are indicated in the table below.

ra_sw_physics= and/or ra_lw_physics=	Scheme Name	Publication
ra_sw_physics=1 no long-wave option	Dudhia Shortwave	Dudhia 1989
ra_lw_physics=1 no short-wave option	RRTM Longwave	Mlawer et al. 1997
ra_sw_physics=2 no long-wave option	Goddard Shortwave	Chou and Suarez 1994 Matsui et al. 2018
3	CAM	Collins 2004
4	RRTMG	Iacono et al. 2008
5	New Goddard	Chou and Suarez 1999 Chou et al. 2001
7	Fu-Liou-Gu	Gu et al. 2011 Fu and Liou 1992
14	RRTMG-K	Baek 2017
24	RRTMG-fast	Iacono et al. 2008
ra_sw_physics=31	Held-Suarez Relaxation	No publication available
99	GFDL	Fels and Schwarzkopf 1981

Land Surface Model (LSM)

The land surface model (LSM) physics setting in WRF is determined by the sf_surface_physics parameter in the &physics namelist.input record.

sf_surface_physics=	Scheme Name	Publication
1	5-layer Thermal Diffusion	Dudhia 1996
2	Unified Noah	Tewari et al. 2004
3	RUC	Benjamin et al. 2004
4	Noah-MP	Niu et al. 2011 Yang et al. 2011 He et al. 2023`_
5	CLM4	Oleson et al. 2010 Lawrence et al. 2011 An earlier version of CLM has been quantitatively evaluated in WRF, referenced here: Jin and Wen 2012 Lu and Kueppers 2012 Subin et al. 2011
7	Pleim-Xiu	Noilan and Planton 1989 Pleim and Xiu 1995 Xiu and Pleim 2001 Pleim and Xiu 2003 Pleim and Gilliam 2009 Gilliam and Pleim 2010
8	Simplified Simple Biosphere (SSiB)	Xue et al. 1991 Sun and Xue 2001

The following are options specific to the Noah LSM (option 2 above) and can be set in the &physics namelist.input record.

Namelist Option	Scheme Name	Publication
ua_phys=.true.	University of Arizona Snow Physics	Wang et al. 2010
sf_surface_mosaic=1	Sub-tiling	Li et al. 2013

Surface Layer

The surface layer physics setting in WRF is determined by the sf_sfclay_physics parameter in the &physics namelist.input record.

sf_sfclay_physics=	Scheme Name	Publication
1	Revised MM5	Jimenez et al. 2012
2	Eta Similarity	Monin and Obukhov 1954 Janjic 1994 Janjic 1996 Janjic 2002
4	QNSE	No publication available
5	MYNN	Olson et al. 2021
7	Pleim-Xiu	Pleim 2006
10	TEMF	Angevine et al. 2010
91	MM5 Similarity	Paulson 1970 Dyer and Hicks 1970 Webb 1970 Beljaars 1994 Zhang and Anthes 1982

The following are options related to the surface layer and can be set in the &physics namelist.input record.

Namelist Option	Scheme Name	Publication
topo_wind=1 or 2	Topographic Correction for Surface Winds to Represent Extra Drag from Sub-grid Topography and Enhanced Flow at Hill Tops	Jimenez and Dudhia 2012
iz0tlnd	Chen-Zhang Modified Zilitinkevich Thermal Roughness Length	Chen and Zhang 2009

Shallow Convection

Shallow cumulus settings in WRF are determined by the shcu_physics parameter in the &physics namelist.input record.

shcu_physics=	Scheme Name	Publication
2	University of Washington	Park and Bretherton 2009
3	Global/Regional Integrated Modeling System (GRIMS)	Hong and Jang 2018
5	Deng	Deng and Kain 2003

Urban Physics

Urban physics options in WRF are determined by the sf_urban_physics parameter in the &physics namelist.input record.

sf_urban_physics=	Scheme Name	Publication
1	Urban Canopy Model	Chen et al. 2011
2	Building Environment Parameterization (BEP)	Salamanca and Martilli 2010 Martilli and Rotach 2002
3	Building Energy Model (BEM)	Salamanca and Martilli 2010 Martilli and Rotach 2002

Ocean Physics Options

Ocean physics options in WRF are determined by the sf_ocean_physics parameter in the &physics namelist.input record.

sf_ocean_physics=	Scheme Name	Publication
1	Simple Mixed-layer Ocean Model	Pollard et al. 1973
2	Price-Weller-Pinkel 3D Ocean Model	Price 1981 Price et al. 1994 Lee and Chen 2012

Large-eddy Simulations (LES)

The following references are available for running WRF for Long Eddy Simulations (LES).

Moeng et al. 2007
Mirocha et al. 2010

WRF Specialty Systems

The following references are available for other flavors of WRF (supported outside of MMM).

Name	Publication
WRF-Hydro	Gochis and Yates 2015
WRF-Fire	Coen et al. 2013

Miscellaneous Options

The following references are available for miscellaneous options available with the WRF modeling system.

Option Name	Namelist Setting	Namelist Record	Publication
Analysis Nudging (FDDA)	grid_fdda=1	&fdda	Stauffer and Seaman 1994 Liu et al. 2008
Spectral Nudging	grid_fdda=2	&fdda	Miguez-Macho et al. 2004
Observational Nudging	obs_nudge_opt=1	&fdda	Liu et al. 2008 Stauffer and Seaman 1994 Xu et al. 2002
Stochastically-perturbed Physics Tendencies (SPPT)	sppt=1	&stoch	Berner et al. 2015
Stochastic Kinetic-energy Backscatter (SKEBS)	skebs=1	&stoch	Berner et al. 2011 WRF Implementation Details and Version History of SKEBS Romine et al. 2014 Ha et al. 2015
Stochastically-perturbed Parameter Scheme (SPP)	spp=1	&stoch	Jankov et al. 2017
WRF-Solar Stochastic Ensemble Prediction System (WRF-Solar EPS)	multi_perturb=1	&stoch	Yang et al. 2021 Kim et al. 2022
Zaengl Slope Effects for Radiation	slope_rad=1	&physics	Zangl 2002
Zaengl Shadow Effects for Radiation	topo_shading=1	&physics	Zangl 2002
CLM4.5 Lake Model	sf_lake_physics=1	&physics	Subin et al. 2012
Fast All-sky Radiation Model for Solar Applications (FARMS)	swint_opt=2	&physics	Xie and Dudhia 2016
PR92 Lightning Option	lightning_option=1,2,or 11	&physics	Price and Rind 1992 Wang and Noone 2012
Yair et al. Lightning Option	lightning_option=3	&physics	Yair et al. 2010 Lynn et al. 2012