MPAS-Dev/MPAS-Model: MPAS Version 8.2.0

This release of MPAS introduces several significant changes to MPAS-Atmosphere.

New physics

• The Noah-MP v5.0.1 land-surface model is now available by setting config_lsm_scheme = 'sf_noahmp' in the &physics namelist group.

  • New static files that include the soilcomp, soilcl1, soilcl2, soilcl3, and soilcl4 fields are required when activating Noah-MP in the model.

• The aerosol-aware Thompson microphysics (as in WRF v4.1.4) is available by setting config_microp_scheme = 'mp_thompson_aerosols' in the &physics namelist group.

  • An aerosol climatology file (QNWFA_QNIFA_SIGMA_MONTHLY.dat) is used when running the init_atmosphere_model program to produce initial and lateral boundary conditions for nifa and nwfa.

Physics changes

• Physics schemes in the physics_mmm directory are now obtained from a separate, shared MMM-physics repository at compile time using the manage_externals tool.

• The revised Monin-Obukhov scheme replaces the Monin-Obukhov scheme in the 'mesoscale_reference' suite.

GPU capabilities

• The scalar transport code has been ported to GPUs using OpenACC directives.

  • The atmosphere core must be compiled with OPENACC=true.
  • Additional timers in the log file capture host-device data transfer times.

Infrastructure

• The build system no longer requires an intermediate clean step when compiling one core before another.