WRF Model Update
WRF model tar file has been updated to Version
3.2 on April 2, 2010. For known problems in V3.2, please click here.
WRF Pre-Processing System (WPS) has been updated to Version 3.2.
Note: Same as for V3.1, the V3.2 WRF can use V3.0 wrfinput and wrfbdy files as long as you don't use the gravity wave drag option which requires new data from geogrid, and add a new namelist variable, use_baseparam_fr_nml in &dynamics. V3.2 can also use V3.1 input, again as long as one does not try to use the new capablities in V3.2. In any case, rerunning the new programs is recommended. Be cautioous when using new options.
If you are interested in seeing
how V3 has been tested, click here.
New in Version 3.2:
Physics:
- Milbrandt-Yau double moment microphysics (mp_physics = 9), including separate hail and graupel categories (contributed from Milbrandt, Environment Canada)
- shallow convection option in G3 cumulus scheme (ishallow = 1)
- BEM: building energy model (sf_urban_physics = 3). Including building anthropogenic terms (contributed from F. Salamanca and A. Martilli of CIEMAT, Spain) (Ref: A new Building Energy Model coupled with an Urban Canopy Parameterization for urban climate simulations_part II. Validation with one dimension off-line simulations. Theor Appl Climatol DOI 10.1007/s00704-009-0143-8)
- Chen-Zhang modified Zilitinkevich thermal roughness length for sf_sfclay_physics = 1, 2 (iz0tlnd = 1) (Ref: F. Chen and Y. Zhang (2009), On the coupling strength between the land surface and the atmosphere: From viewpoint of surface exchange coefficients. Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L10404, doi:10.1029/2009GL037980).
- Garratt surface enthalpy flux option (isftcflx = 2) for tropical storms
- dissipative heating for tropical storms (isftcflx > 0)
- WRF-fire (contributed by J. Coen, J. Mandel, J. Beezley, M. Kim)
Dynamics / Filters:
- nonlinear backscatter anisotropic (NBA) turbulence option: sfs_opt=1,2. Sub-grid stress model for LES (contributed from J. Mirocha of Lawrence Livermore) (Ref: Mirocha, J. D., B. Kosovic and J. K. Lundquist: Implementation of nonlinear subfilter turbulence stress models into WRF. To be submitted)
- time-averaged flux output: do_avgflx_em, do_avgflx_cugd. Useful for offline transport models (contributed by T. Nehrkorn of AER)
Improvements and Bug fixes: (with the significant ones highlighted in bold font)
Physics:
- hydrostatic pressure used for many of the physics options. also available in history output (p_hyd) for post-processing.
Atmospheric Radiation:
- RRTM longwave: fix for cooling problem near model top (see paper by Cavallo et al.), hydrostatic pressure input
- CAM radiation: hydrostatic pressure input, OpenMP fix, fix input moisture converting to specific humidity
- GFDL radiation: input hydrostatic pressure instead of computing it
- RRTMG radiation: minor fix to longwave clear-sky, cloud effects now include ice plus snow, not just ice
- Goddard shortwave: hydrostatic pressure input
Microphysics:
- Thompson microphysics: improve efficiency of table initialization
- WRF Single and Double Moment microphysics schemes: added semi-lagrangian fall terms, correction for precip going to LSMs with long time-steps (> 120 s)
- Morrison microphysics: use model constants instead of own
- Lin microphysics: add snow information output, fixes for Chem use
Cumulus:
- GD cumulus: minor mods including hydrostatic pressure input
- G3 cumulus: input hydrostatic pressure
- KF cumulus schemes: minor fix for rainfall going to LSMs
Planetary boundary layer physics:
- QNSE surface/pbl: fix 2m and 10m diagnostics
- GWDO (gravity wave drag, ARW version): use hydrostatic pressure for stability with thin layers
- ACM2 PBL: minor improvements
- MYNN PBL: output PBL height
- YSU PBL: minor correction for Prandtl number in unstable conditions and change for upper-air mixing scale
- MYJ PBL: fix to PBL height computation
Surface physics:
- Noah LSM: output diagnostic relative soil moisture (smcrel), improve snow-cover, improve budget terms (internal)
- BEP urban option: improvements
- slope/shading effects generalized to all shortwave options and moved to surface driver
- RUC LSM has new sfcdiags for its diagnostic outputs, added sea-ice treatment, improved snow
- PX LSM: add sea ice and lake ice effects
- fix for sst_update and fractional sea-ice options: modify snow, albedo, and emissivity when a grid point changes from sea-ice to open water
- Ocean mixed layer: separate from 5-layer soil model, can be called with any LSM
Nudging:
- obs-nudging: add runtime controls for vertical spread of surface obs, other improvements, bug fixes
(see README.namelist for a list of new options)
- grid-nudging: minor fix to PBL regime calculation
Initialization/IO:
- RH vertical interpolation instead of qv
-
fixes for input bad (high values) qv at high levels - this is a companion fix for RRTM longwave radiation.
- use dominant land and soil categories from WPS/geogrid without recalculation (surface_input_source = 3)
- Fixes for digital filter initialization, and zero boundary tendency option
- improvement for adaptive time-stepping for nests (new namelist: adaptation_domain)
- SCM option: improvements for large-scale advection
- tracer 4d array added for use in chemistry and other applications
- precipitation output: add buckets with specified frequency (new namelist: prec_acc_dt in minutes, and new output fields: prec_acc_c, prec_acc_nc and snow_acc_nc)
- removing output fields when options are not selected
Nesting/ndown/restart
- 2-way nesting: fixed a problem with noise or blow-ups over complex terrain at nest boundary
- ndown: able to increase vertical resolution by an integer factor (new namelist: vert_refine_fact) (contributed from M. Moustaoui and A. Mahalov of ASU)
- restart with nudging and sst_update: fixed so restart can happen at a non-data time
- restart: the wrfout file that appears at restart time is removed
namelist.input
- extra namelists for CAM radiation option are no longer required - they are assigned automatically (cam_abs_freq_s, cam_abs_dim1, cam_abs_dim2, levsiz and paerlev)
- improved namelist check and advisory prints
- due to expanded IO capabilities, one needs to add extra namelist in the following cases:
* using sst_update option: add io_form_auxinput4 = 2 in &time_control
* using fine_input_stream: add io_form_auxinput2 = 2 in &time_control
Software:
New Features:
- run-time input/output field specification and increased number of auxiliary I/O streams (see README.io_config)
-
improve domain decomposition for MPI and OpenMP to increase the maximum number of processors/threads allowed and please add these:
-
added support for GPU acceleration of microphysics (WSM3 and WSM5) using PGI 10.3 accelerator directives (read more)
-
WRF and WPS ported to 64-bit Windows (read more)
-
improved performance and scaling to 10^5 cores on high-end systems including Blue Gene/P and Cray XT5
- ESMF 4 support
