# Issue with ACCESS-ESM ocean output

**URL:** https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/issue-with-access-esm-ocean-output/6078
**Category:** General
**Tags:** help, access-esm, access-esm15
**Created:** [18 March 2026 02:06 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/issue-with-access-esm-ocean-output/6078 "2026-03-18T02:06:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Pat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@Pat](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/Pat)
#### Post date: [18 March 2026 02:06 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/issue-with-access-esm-ocean-output/6078/1 "2026-03-18T02:06:14Z")

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Hello,

I have performed some experiments with ACCESS-ESM1.5 which for the most part have run smoothly. However in one of the output folders (output\_055) the ocean data doesn’t appear to have been properly processed. The variables are stored in multiple .nc files with each only covering a small spatial slab.

e.g; instead of

`ocean-2d-bottom_age_global-1monthly-mean-ym_0775_01.nc`

there are files

`ocean-2d-bottom_age_global-1monthly-mean-ym_0775_01.nc.001`

through to

`ocean-2d-bottom_age_global-1monthly-mean-ym_0775_01.nc.179`

I have unsuccessfully tried to use `ncks –msa` to combine them.

Unsure how to resolve this issue?

Thanks

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### Author: ![anton](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/anton/32/1836_2.png) [@anton](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/anton)
#### Post date: [18 March 2026 02:22 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/issue-with-access-esm-ocean-output/6078/2 "2026-03-18T02:22:02Z")

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Hi Patrick

MOM5 outputs are saved on tiles by the model, and then collated at the end of each model run. The collation is abstracted away by payu mostly, but in this case it looks like the collation failed.

I think you `cd` to output\_055 and then run `payu collate`

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![anton](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/anton/32/1836_2.png) [@anton](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/anton)
#### Post date: [18 March 2026 02:22 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/issue-with-access-esm-ocean-output/6078/3 "2026-03-18T02:22:18Z")

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### Author: ![aekiss](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/aekiss/32/46_2.png) [@aekiss](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/aekiss)
#### Post date: [18 March 2026 02:32 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/issue-with-access-esm-ocean-output/6078/4 "2026-03-18T02:32:17Z")

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see [Usage — payu 1.2.1 documentation](https://payu.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usage.html#postprocessing)

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Pat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@Pat](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/Pat)
#### Post date: [18 March 2026 02:38 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/issue-with-access-esm-ocean-output/6078/5 "2026-03-18T02:38:04Z")

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Thanks for the quick replies.

I tried running payu collate but it failed with `ValueError: Cannot determine model type`

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### Author: ![anton](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/anton/32/1836_2.png) [@anton](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/anton)
#### Post date: [18 March 2026 02:43 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/issue-with-access-esm-ocean-output/6078/6 "2026-03-18T02:43:37Z")

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Sorry - Andrew’s suggestion is probably better.

From the control directory, run `payu collate -i 055`

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![anton](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/anton/32/1836_2.png) [@anton](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/anton)
#### Post date: [29 June 2026 05:59 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/issue-with-access-esm-ocean-output/6078/7 "2026-06-29T05:59:13Z")

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