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ACCESS-rAM3
Release: Beta
This is the first ACCESS-NRI supported release of ACCESS-rAM3, an implementation of the UK Met Office (UKMO) regional nesting suite. More information about the model is available on the ACCESS Hive Docs.
Importantly, unlike other models this is a suite that supports creating regional atmosphere/land configurations in an Australian context. The suite enables the user to choose the time and location of interest that they wish to simulate, and automatically creates the necessary fields to initialise and drive the model.
What can you expect to be able to do with this?
A user should be able to
- take this suite and run it as-is, which will run a simulation of the Lismore storm event
- modify the location of the whole simulation and the offset of the inner nest within the simulation
- modify the simulation start time
THIS IS A BETA RELEASE
This is a beta release. It will be fit to use and test. Known issues are listed below, but there may be some issues that have not yet been discovered and fixed. The suite may change during the beta testing period as improvements are made. If that happens updates will made in this topic.
If you are testing this release and find a problem, please check it isn’t a known issue and if not either make a topic on the ACCESS-Hive Forum or reply to the ACCESS-rAM3 Beta Feedback topic.
A full release is envisaged in the near future, probably in 3-4 weeks depending on feedback received. There are likely to be changes to address issues identified in testing. When there is a full release this beta release will no longer be supported.
For the reasons stated above this beta release should be used for testing only and is not recommended for use in published research.
ACCESS-NRI is interested in all feedback, positive or negative, but in particular we would like to know
- Are the diagnostic output fields as you would expect?
- Were you able to change the simulation run time? Were you able to change the simulation location?
- Are the instructions clear and easy to follow? Is there anything unclear, missing or incorrect?
Getting started
Features
Relocatable domain (user defined)
Two-level nest, inner nest 2km resolution
Supports ERA5, ERA5-Land, BARRA-R2
Native netCDF formatted output
Documentation on ACCESS Hive Docs
Pre-compiled executable, build and deployed using ACCESS-NRI pipeline
Nesting suite
u-dg768@315553
Default performance: 1 model day / hour (wall time), 750SU / model day
Model data output usage: 1.2GB / model day (depending on STASHPACK choices)
Total data usage: 300GB / model day (includes all driving data, can be deleted after run)
Ancillary suite (run once per nest configuration)
u-dg767@314774
Default performance: 70SU
Ancillary data usage: 90GB
Limitations
BARRA-R2 nesting configuration settings are not provided as a default.
Support is provided for a fixed nest size and resolution.
Nest location is constrained between -60 < latitude < 60.
Model calendar time is constrained by the time bounds of the forcing and boundary condition datasets.
Support is provided for 24 hour run length. Minimum run length is 24 hours.
Central location and grid box must match the grid of selected land surface initial condition data.
Uses RAL3.2 and UM v13.0 (not the latest versions)
Known Issues
Model outputs are stored in /scratch. Currently it is a user responsibility to copy this to long term storage if that is a requirement.
Large amounts of forcing data are created. Currently it is a user responsibility to manage this by deleting when no longer required.
Direct netCDF output capability is lagging behind the latest UM versions as it is not directly supported by the UKMO.
Some issues from alpha feedback testing are still being evaluated and may be incorporated in later releases.
The Regional Ancillary Suite uses some non-optimal queue settings which can mean it takes some time to run. This is being investigated.
The GAL9 umnsaa_pb files have extra t1min_0 time profile data due to the same STASHPACK6 being used for the GAL9 and RAL3p2 nests despite different STASH time profiles being required to produce outputs. This will be looked into at a later date.
Future developments
Varying SST capability (OSTIA) is not supported in this release, but is in progress for a later release
GCM driving data is not supported in this release. This is being scoped for a possible future release
Credits
Based on the UKMO developed Regional Ancillary Suite (RAS) and Regional Nesting Suite (RNS)
Physics settings from UKMO RAL3.2 and GAL9 (nest resolution dependent) @cnf @csu
Ancillary generation tools development @cbengel
Configuration development and testing @cbengel @MartinDix
Configuration advice @dale.roberts @Scott
Suite development @cbengel @MartinDix
Suite configuration updates @paulleopardi
Model build infrastructure @paulleopardi @harshula
Python packaging, testing and deployment @atteggiani
Deployment infrastructure @TommyGatti
Documentation @cbengel @atteggiani @heidi @jasmeen_kaur
Ancillary suite: spiral search improvements @mlipson
Alpha testing feedback @mlipson @bethanwhite @jiachenluMet @cchambers
Support
Replies to this topic are disabled.
If you have specific questions about this release create a topic in Atmosphere > Regional Nesting Suite and tag it with help and access-ram or reply to the ACCESS-rAM3 Beta Feedback topic.
As always follow the guidelines for requesting help.
Resources
- ACCESS-rAM3 model configuration information
- How to run ACCESS-rAM3
- ACCESS-rAM3 model deployment repository
- Ancillary suite:
u-dg767 - Nesting suite:
u-dg768 - RMED TRAC Ticket #665 to coordinate rAM3 changes
- UM support for native netCDF output