Making domain beyond 60 S in ACCESS-rAM3

Hi everyone,

I am trying to run RAS to generate some ancillary files for a domain beyond 60 S, and I encounter some issues as follows:

  • The job.err of _ancil_mean_orog shows:
raise Exception('!!!!! ERROR: SRTM data not available for regions above 60 deg. Max:'+str(North)+' Min:'+str(South))
Exception: !!!!! ERROR: SRTM data not available for regions above 60 deg. Max:2 Min:-82
  • _ancil_soils_hydr failed due to running out of time
 PBS: job killed: walltime 3697 exceeded limit 3600

I was just wondering if there is some way to extend my domain beyond 60 S? Given the SRTM data not avalable beyond 60S, could we use another source to generate _ancil_mean_orog?

Thanks!

P.S. The domain I would like to simulate

For [-40, 99] with [0.1, 0.1] and [800, 1200]: 
coords = 39.000, 159.000, -80.000, 0.000

P.P.S. For my simulation, I actually do not need very accurate orography data around the Antarctic. Would it be possible/reasonable to just mask out the orography flat beyond 60 S?

Hi @chenhui.jin, the SRTM dataset for orography only extends to -60. You can though use the GLOBE dataset instead. This is set in the regional ancillary suite. There is a true/false toggle for {}_{}_orog_srtm under the resolution setup.

Please be aware though that BARRA does not extend even to -60 so you will need to use either era5-land for the land/surface or era5 (I would use era5-land, and shift the lat/lons to a grid-corresponding to era5-land points with 0.1 degree spacing).

NOTE: You would need to switch both rg01_rs01_orog_srtm and rg01_rs02_orog_srtm to .FALSE. .

Please reach out if you need help.

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Hi @cbengel,

Thanks for your help. I had a try, it seems the _ancil_mean_orog is not triggered this time.

There are still some issues with _ancil_soils_hydr (due to running out of time), and _ancil_cap_sstice (job.err doesn’t show anything helpful to find where the issue occurred).

job.err for _ancil_soils_hydr:

Using the cylc session cylc.cj0591.if69.ps.gadi.nci.org.au

Loading cylc7/24.03
  Loading requirement: mosrs-setup/2.0.1
=>> PBS: job killed: walltime 3707 exceeded limit 3600
Terminated
2026-03-25T11:30:31Z CRITICAL - failed/TERM

job.err for _ancil_cap_sstice:

Using the cylc session cylc.cj0591.if69.ps.gadi.nci.org.au

Loading cylc7/24.03
  Loading requirement: mosrs-setup/2.0.1
gc_abort (Processor     0): ANCIL EXIT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
MPI_ABORT was invoked on rank 0 in communicator MPI_COMM_WORLD
with errorcode 9.

NOTE: invoking MPI_ABORT causes Open MPI to kill all MPI processes.
You may or may not see output from other processes, depending on
exactly when Open MPI kills them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[FAIL] rose mpi-launch -v central_ancillary.exe # return-code=9
2026-03-25T11:08:19Z CRITICAL - failed/EXIT

Hi @chenhui.jin ,

You can change the wall time in site/nci-gadi/suite-adds.rc, line 69. Change the execution time limit from PT1H to PT2H.

For the _ancil_cap_sstice error, I would re-submit the job and try again. It might be a gadi issue.

By the way, is your grid very large? If so,@Paul.Gregory might be able to give you advice.

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Hi @chenhui.jin I was talking to @alanah.chapman yesterday at the roundtable. Alanah is going to try to run rAM3 at very high latitudes for some sea ice / aerosol studies.

We were discussing the same issues you are raising, and we discovered this old thread on the hive.

I would reach out to @ZhangchengPei to ask about using the other orography datasets that have coverage over Antarctica.

I don’t believe anyone has yet run rAM3 using those other datasets. But there is definite interest in doing so.

2 Likes

Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll have a try and let you know how it goes.

Yes, I have grid numbers 800 and 1200 in Y and X direction respectively

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Hi @cbengel,

Changing the time limit solves the _ancil_soils_hydr.

However, the _ancil_cap_sstice issue persists after a couple of attempts, with the same error message.

Hi @chenhui.jin, I suggest that you reach out to @ZhangchengPei because it might be a dataset issue near Antarctica (given it is a SST issue). Otherwise I would suggest shifting your lower boundary northward.

Thanks, @cbengel and @Paul.Gregory, I will reach out to @ZhangchengPei.

P.S. I was also wondering if I can run the model without _ancil_cap_sstice ?

Yes. You could try setting _sstsmc_anc to .FALSE. in rg01_rs01 and rg01_rs02 and see how you go.

Chenhui - if you want to run the model with unrealistic southern boundary conditions, you could try and stay with the srtm orogoraphy and do what Chermelle has suggested above.

If you comment out lines 168-169 of /src/contrib/Apps/Orography/concant_srtm_tiles.py

if North> 60 or South < -60:
        raise Exception('!!!!! ERROR: SRTM data not available for regions above 60 deg. Max:'+str(North)+' Min:'+str(South))

You can generate SRTM orography over Australia and flat nothing all the way to the South Pole.

See here :

https://21centuryweather.discourse.group/t/flagship-domain-for-ram3/1196/67

You will need to ensure your land sea mask is also consistent (no land below 60 south), otherwise you will generate soil and vegetation ancils in this region.

I have an idea how you can do this if you want to pursue this (i.e. generation ancils using SRTM but enforce no land south of 60 degrees).

Hi @Paul.Gregory,

I feel open to testing different ways :slight_smile:

Now we have:

  • @cbengel’s method: switch off {}_{}_orog_srtm, while we will still have some issues about _ancil_cap_sstice, which I will reach out to @ZhangchengPei for a solution.
    Alternatively, I switched _sstsmc_anc to False, and all tasks are completed, and I assume I could run the model without _ancil_cap_sstice for my application?

  • Paul’s method: For my understanding, we still generate the ancils from STRM, but manually mask land flat south of 60 S?

A bit trickier but you could also blend the two - have SRTM above 60S and non-SRTM below it - should be able to do this with either ANTS or Mule

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