To receive email notifications when a new release is announced, please watch this topic.
ACCESS-rAM3
Release: 2.0
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 2.0 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.
Note that this release supersedes rAM3-1.0, and we encourage users to use this 2.0 release, even if you’re not using the additional (optional) OSTIA feature.
ACCESS-NRI is grateful for the community engagement and feedback in the alpha and beta testing stages. Definitions of release stages and what they mean are available on the Hive Docs.
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
- Optionally use OSTIA sea-surface temperature and sea-ice fields for initial conditions and boundary conditions.
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
- How to Run ACCESS-rAM3 guide on the ACCESS-Hive Docs.
- access-ram3-config docs for community-contributed ACCESS-rAM3 documentation.
What’s new
Added option to use RAL3.3 (most recent version)
Updated UM atmosphere model to version 13.5
Removed anomalous rainfall spin-up in GAL9 nest
Ability to use daily-varying OSTIA (includes a new suite to generate OSTIA ancillaries)
Features
Relocatable domain (user defined)
Two-level nest, inner nest 2km resolution
Supports replace land/surface from ERA5-Land, BARRA-R2
Supports daily-varying OSTIA
Documentation (in preview mode)
Pre-compiled executable, build and deployed using ACCESS-NRI pipeline
Nesting suite
u-by395/nci_access_ram3
Default performance: 1 model day / hour (wall time), 750SU / model day
Model data output usage: 3GB / model day (default, depends on STASHPACK choices)
Driving data usage: 20GB (Automatically cleaned. Only data for most recent model run. Can be deleted after run)
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-bu503/nci_access_ram3
Default performance: 70SU
Ancillary data usage: 90GB
OSTIA ancillary suite (run as needed to support nest configuration)
u-dk517
Default performance: 1 SU
Ancillary data usage: 1.2 GB
ACCESS-rAM3 scaling information
This ACCESS-rAM3 scaling results notebook can be used to perform scaling studies on the Regional Nesting Suite forecast configuration.
Limitations
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.
Known Issues
Native netCDF formatted output has been disabled
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.
The output logs for the u-dk517 jobs are more inline with the ancillary suite. The documentation needs to be updated to reflect the newer, more reliable and faster implementation of the suite.
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
Integration of the CABLE land-surface model to replace JULES.
GCM driving data is being scoped for a possible future release.
Currently there is UM fields file output only, there is no automated post-processing to netCDF.
Credits
Based on the UKMO Regional Ancillary Suite (RAS) and Regional Nesting Suite (RNS)
RAS: pre-filled latest cylc7 head-of-trunk @cbengel; Urban ancillaries development @mlipson
OAS: Suite development by @cbengel, using u-cj933 daily-varying ERA5 ancillaries suite developed by @csu and distributed by @EmmaHoward and @mlipson; @MartinDix investigated OSTIA land/sea mask; @mlipson for suite review.
RNS: Head-of-trunk modifications in preparation for back-to-trunk and suite changes for Gadi site. Claudio Sanchez and Anne McCabe of UKMO for advice on Gadi site changes; @cbengel for migrated u-dg768 changes to u-by395 head-of-trunk, review and updated vk83 independent rose/cylc (unless using spack or replace land/surface), and updated OSTIA-related settings; @Scott for suite review.
RNS (spack executable): @paulleopardi, @Aidan, @harshula and @TommyGatti for spack build; @cbengel for softlinking to spack directory in u-by395; changes to rose/cylc UI handling of spack suggested by Claudio Sanchez, modified by @cbengel with additional suggestions by @Aidan.
RNS (GAL9 spinup issue): @coreyrobinson raised GAL9 level spinup issue; @bethanwhite discussed with UKMO staff; @cbengel modified rose/cylc suite with a work-around.
ACCESS-rAM3 documentation on ACCESS-Hive docs: update and review by @paigem @cbengel, @heidi and @atteggiani.
access-ram3-configs community documentation: @cbengel for initial content; @atteggiani for website infrastructure.
Support
Replies to this topic are disabled.
If you have specific questions about this release please make a topic on the ACCESS-Hive Forum by following the guidelines for requesting help
Resources
- ACCESS-rAM3 Model Overview
- How to run ACCESS-rAM3
- ACCESS-rAM3 model deployment repository
- RMED TRAC Ticket #665 to coordinate rAM3 changes
- UM support for native netCDF output [disabled in this release]