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ACCESS-rAM3
Release: 1.0
This an 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.
This is the supported 1.0 release. Suite branches and revision numbers are detailed below. If you have an existing suite checked out from the alpha or beta testing phase and you are not confident updating it you may need to delete it and re-checkout.
ACCESS-NRI is grateful for the community engagement and feedback in the alpha and beta testing stages.
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 full release of the model. It is fit for use for scientific purposes and will be supported by ACCESS-NRI. Known issues are listed below, but there may be some issues that have not yet been discovered and fixed. If updates are required a new version will be released and an update posted to this topic.
If you are using this release and find a problem, please check it isn’t a known issue and if not, make a topic on the ACCESS-Hive Forum.
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/access_rel_1@318332
Default performance: 1 model day / hour (walltime), 750SU / model day
Model data output usage: 3GB / model day (default, depends on STASHPACK choices)
Driving data usage: 20GB (Automated house-keeping of driving data)
Temporary work file usage: 41G (Automatically pruned. Only data for most recent model run. Can be deleted after run)
Ancillary suite (run once per nest configuration)
u-dg767/access_rel_1@318331
Default performance: Walltime ~30min (depends on queue wait time), 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 60S < latitude < 60N.
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
Nests must contain at least one land point with valid initial condition data. Diagnosis and work-around is covered in troubleshooting documentation.
Some combinations of start date and location can generate unstable initial conditions. There are work-arounds in the troubleshooting section of the documentation.
There are occasional intermittent unreproducible errors where RAS jobs report being stuck but have in fact failed. See diagnosis and solution in the troubleshooting section of the documentation.
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 driving data are created. All but the most recent run are automatically deleted. It is a user responsibility to delete final driving data 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 and beta feedback testing are still being evaluated and may be incorporated in later releases.
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
Nesting suite: automated housekeeping @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