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Overview of MOM6 configuration (input files etc)

Presenters: @aekiss @claireyung

Configuration and input files when running MOM6 "standalone" (FMS coupler). Actually, running MOM6 in an idealised way only requires 3 input files. Here is an example taken from Claire's IS-PG-MOM6 repository:

  • MOM_input -- parameter settings (name defined in 'MOM_input').
  • diag_table -- diagnostics.
  • input.nml -- run settings (calendar, MOM_input names etc).

As this is an idealised test case, much of the configuration (forcing, geometry etc) are defined in common/MOM_input. MOM_input file typically contain only the non-default values that are needed. A full list of parameters be found in the corresponding MOM_parameter_doc.all file (example) which is generated by the model at run-time. In Claire's case, she builds "perturbations" of the base case ("common") by modifying these files; in icemount-layer-LSPR (here) you can see the symlinks to the MOM_input, diag_table, input.nml files discussed above. Except that now there is a MOM_override file (here) which overrides any settings in MOM_input.

MOM6 also has an in-built sea-ice model SIS2. An example configuratin is here. You can see that there are more configuration files (additional to MOM_input, diag_table, input.nml):

  • field_table;
  • SIS_input SIS2 input files;
  • data_table forcing files if using FMS coupler

ACCESS-NRI ACCESS-OM3 uses a different coupler (NUOPC) compared to the above two examples. It also uses a different "standalone" sea-ice model CICE. So whilst the MOM elements discussed above remain the same. Additional files are required for NUOPC to couple the components.

ACCESS OM3 diagram source: https://access-om3-configs.access-hive.org.au/latest/infrastructure/Architecture/

There's a description of the files found in a configuration here: https://access-om3-configs.access-hive.org.au/latest/configurations/Overview/

OM3 configurations are stored here: https://github.com/acCESS-nri/access-om3-configs

Configurations that have a {dev|release}- prefix are the ones to focus on. Briefly, the configurations branches are named with the following {dev|release}-{MODEL_COMPONENTS}_{nominal_resolution}km_{forcing_data}_{forcing_method}[+{modifier}]

Further details here.

Users are welcome to fork the access-nri configuration repository and share what changes/additions they make to configurations. ACCESS-NRI is also interested in helping support users share configurations (process outlined here). We are also keeping a list of key experiments used for development here.

Handy resources: