Mesoscale Parallel Experiment Change Log

Experiment Name:  North American NEMS/NMMB test

When Who What
2013/04/24/00 Ferrier, Rogers
  • Change parameter cdmb in GWDMB scheme from 0.25 to 0.1
    • 2013/04/09/00 Ferrier, Rogers
  • Change parameter cdmb in GWDMB scheme from 0.5 to 0.25
    • 2013/03/26/00 Ferrier, Rogers
  • Change parameter cdmb in GWDMB scheme from 0 to 0.5
  • Change the elevated critical threshold for the onset of condensation (RHgrd) from 0.95 to 0.98
  • Restart cycled land-states and satelllite bias corrections from NDASX
    • 2013/03/14/00 Ferrier, Tassone
  • Restore sigfac value in gravity wave drag scheme/mountain blocking scheme (GWDMB) to 3
  • Set parameter cdmb=0 to turn off mountain blocking in the GWDMB code.
  • Revert back to the cloud fractions before the 3/9/2013 change in terms of the functional dependence of cloud fractions with cloud mixing ratios. But the March 9 change that allows for lower thresholds of nonzero cloud fractions is kept, which allow for cloud fractions as small as 0.1%.
  • Increase z0clim roughness length values for these IGBP vegetation types:
    1. Evergreen Needleleaf Forest
    2. Deciduous Broadleaf Forest
    3. Mixed Forests
    4. Croplands
    5. Cropland/natural vegetation mosaic
  • Restart cycled land-states and satelllite bias corrections from NDASX
    • 2013/03/09/00 Ferrier
  • Turned back on impact of aerosols in the RRTM scheme
  • Change the elevated critical threshold for the onset of condensation (RHgrd) to be 0.95 from 1.0
  • Increased cloud fractions for thin (low mixing ratio) clouds, reduced cloud/no cloud thresholds
    • 2013/03/06/00 Wu
  • Begun ingest of the GDAS ozone field in the GSI analysis for radiance assimilation enhancement
    • 2013/02/25/12 Ferrier
  • Turned off impact of aerosols in the RRTM scheme
    • 2013/02/21/00 Ferrier, Rogers
  • Changed sigfac parameter in GWD/MB scheme from 3.0 to 1.5
    • 2013/02/19/12 Ferrier, Rogers
  • Changed GWD parameter dpmin (height in cb of lower reference level) from 5 to 0 (equivalent to the first model level above ground or the PBL height, whichever is higher)
    • 2013/02/15/18 Janjic
  • Begin test of bug fix in gravity wave drag: the critical pressure level (RLOLEV), which has been set to 500 in the model configure file, should be in centibars, so it has been changed to 50.
    • 2013/02/01/00 Y. Wu, Ek
  • Bug fixed in the setup of soil parameters in the Bulk Urban Parameterization in Noah LSM to avoid too high LH fluxes and 2-m dewpoints in urban areas, done by setting SMCDRY=0.4
    • 2013/01/30/00 Ferrier
  • Change to the microphysics:
    1. Decreased NLImax (the maximum number of large ice particles) from 20.e3 (20 per liter) to 10.e3 (20 per liter).
    • 2013/01/29/18 Janjic, Wu
  • Changes to the BMJ convective scheme
    1. An error in the LCL layer in the triggering part of the code was fixed
    2. CAPE is checked instead of entropy in the triggering part of the code
    3. Redundant constant definitions through argument list and use are removed
    4. Weak momentum transport by shallow convection
    5. Combination of old and new shallow convection
  • Changes to the GSI aanlysis
    1. Turn on variational QC scheme in GSI code
    2. Assimilate Meteosat 10 wind subtypes with different data thinning
    • 2012/12/11/00 Wu
  • Turn on use of GOES-15 radiances in the GSI analysis
  • All parallel NDAS cycles restarted with satellite bias correction files spun up with GOES-15 information
    • 2012/12/05/00 Wu
  • GSI analysis upgraded to the same version (r20439) that is running in NAMZ on Zeus
    • 2012/11/21/18 Ferrier, Wu
  • Added subroutine CLTEND from the WRF NMM to the NMMB solver code so that temperature changes from moist cloud processes (convection, grid-scale microphysics) are incrementally applied at each dynamics time step.
  • Begin use of new VAD winds in GSI analysis
    • 2012/11/08/18 Wu
  • GSI analysis changes : use GPS bending angle observations
    1. Replace refractivity with bending angle from satellites GRACE A, COSMIC 1-6, METOP A
    2. Turn on bending angle obs from TSX, SAC-C, C/NOFS
    3. Set cut off height to 30 km (12mb)
    • 2012/10/02/00 Ferrier, H-M. Lin, Hou
  • Added an extra layer above the top of the model domain within the internal RRTM radiation driver for the NMMB (grrad_nmmb.f) to account for the radiative effects of ozone and other trace gases (CO2, N2O, CH4, O2, CO, and various CFCs) from the model top to the top of the atmosphere. A fixed profile with height is assumed for the trace gases.
    • 2012/09/27/18 Ferrier, H-M. Lin
  • Changes to the RRTM radiation
    1. Use global monthly CO2 concentrations that are used in the GFS
    2. Removed diurnal variation of albedo
    3. Code changed to add in small amounts of convective clouds into the input cloud calculations, but only if all of the following conditions are met:
      1. The maximum condensate mixing ratio is < QWmax.
      2. Only shallow convection is present, do not apply to deep convection.
      3. Only apply if the depth of shallow convection is between CU_DEEP_MIN (50 hPa) and CU_DEEP_MAX (200 hPa).
      4. Convective precipitation rate must be <0.01 mm/h.
  • Restarted NDASB land states and satellite bias corrections from NDASX
    • 2012/07/24/18 Ferrier, H-M. Lin
  • Begin use of July 3rd version of RRTM
  • Installed a fix for the calculation of the time-averaged mean of the cosine of the zenith angle in the RRTM radiation scheme.
  • Restarted NDASB land states and satellite bias corrections from NDASX
    • 2012/07/05/12 Janjic, Rogers
  • Reduce resolution factor for DSP's ("fres') from 0.85 to 0.75 in BMJ_DEV convection
  • Restarted NDASB cycle from NDASX soil states and NDASB satellite bias corrections
    • 2012/06/07/00 Wu, Rogers
  • Begin use of EnKF version of the GSI analysis, using ensemble forecasts from the global EnKF system to compute background error covariances.
  • Restarted NDASB soil states and satellite bias corrections from NDASX.
    • 2012/05/22/18 Wu
  • Begin use of mesonet wind observation reject list from RTMA.
    • 2012/04/24/00 Ferrier, H-M. Lin, Hou
  • Revert back to 28 March version of cloud fraction formulation in RRTM radiation (radiation_clouds.f routine).
    • 2012/04/13/18 Ferrier, H-M. Lin, Hou
  • Retuned version of cloud fraction formulation in RRTM radiation with a modified radiation_clouds.f routine put into NAMB (April 13th version).
    • 2012/04/12/18 Ferrier, H-M. Lin, Hou
  • Revert back to NAM cloud fraction formulation in RRTM radiation with a modified radiation_clouds.f routine (April 11th version).
    • 2012/04/06/18 Pyle
  • Changes to the NPS preprocessing code:
    1. When GFS spectral files are used (as is the case in starting the NDAS), the specific humidity rather than the RH field now is used as the moisture source.
    2. The RH processing is modified to prevent setting a floor value of 1% in the RH --> mixing ratio conversion routine. Now a floor value of 0.001% is utilized.
    • 2012/04/05/00 Y. Lin, Rogers
  • Discovered that the NDASB was not assimilating precipitation due to the precip assimilation flag being hardwired to false in the NDASB forecast script. This is the reason the long-term budget adjustment file for NDASB was corrupted, because the input NDASB land-sfc precip accumulation (LSPA) was undefined.
  • Because of the previous problem, the cycled land-states for NDASB were restarted from operational NDAS.
  • Starting with the ops NDAS long-term budget adjustment file (which has not been updated since 1/23/2012 due to the termination of the CPC 1/8th degree precip analysis), the NDASB long-term precip budget adjustment was turned back on, now using the CCPA product.
    • 2012/03/31/00 Ferrier, H-M. Lin, Hou
  • Begin use of a newer modified version of radiation_clouds.f routine (March 28th version).
    • 2012/03/28/12 Y. Lin
  • Turned off long-term budget adjustment for the precipitation analyses used to update soil states in the NDAS forecast due to issues with the now defunct 1/8 deg CPC precip analysis.
    • 2012/03/27/18 Ferrier
  • Pulled out modified version of radiation_clouds.f routine (from Mar 19) and revert back to repository code; removed smoothing of vertical profiles of heating/cooling rates from the 3/24/2012 changes.
    • 2012/03/24/00 Ferrier, H-M. Lin, Hou
  • The following changes were made to the RRTM radiation:
    1. Use the dynamic albedos from the land surface model
    2. Smoothing of vertical profiles of heating/cooling rates
    3. Uses cloud fractions implemented in October 2011 in the NAM (see here for a description of the change)
    4. Correctly separate cloud ice and snow mixing ratios from the input total ice mixing ratios
    5. Calculates cloud-layer (e.g., low/middle/high) and broadband radiation from the prognostic cloud code rather than from the old NAM/GFDL driver (19 Mar version of radiation_clouds.f)
    • 2012/02/02/18 Ferrier, H-M. Lin, Hou
  • Switched from GFDL to RRTM radiation physics.
    • 2012/01/27/18 Wu
  • Begin use of raob level enhancement in GSI analysis.
    • 2011/12/20/00 Ferrier, Rogers
  • In the gravity wave drag parameterization, changed the parameter SIGFAC from 0 to 3. SIGFAC scales the effects of subgrid-scale orography (SIGFAC*standard deviation of the terrain height).
    • 2011/11/22/12 Ferrier
  • Changes to the microphysics:
    1. Decreased NLImax (the maximum number of large ice particles) from 50.e3 (50 per liter) to 20.e3 (20 per liter).
    2. Fixed a bug in the algorithm that calculates the number of large ice particles and the mean ice-particle diameter. It will also alter the rime factor (ice particle density) under special, rare circumstances when the mean diameter and number concentration of the large ice are set to maximum values.
    • 2011/11/07/18 Ferrier, Rogers
  • Removed 4x increase in diffusion of specific humidity and cloud water mixing ratio
  • Restarted cycled NDAS from ops NAM land-states and satellite bias corrections
    • 2011/10/24/18 Rogers
  • Restarted cycled NDAS from ops NAM land-states and satellite bias corrections
    • 2011/10/04/18 Janjic, Pyle
  • Restored smag2 (Smagorinsky constant for 2nd order diffusion) to the original value of 0.4
  • Restored codamp (divergence damping constant) to the original value of 9.0
  • Increased resolution factor for DSP's ("fres') increased to 0.85
  • NDAS cycle (soil states and satellite bias corrections) restarted from NAMX control
    • 2011/09/20/12 Janjic, Pyle, Black
  • Prior to outputting the full non-hydrostatic vertical velocity, add back the barotropic (external mode) component, which was removed some time ago to alleviate a noise problem in the CONUS nest domain
    • 2011/09/15/00 Pyle
  • Reduced smag2 (Smagorinsky constant for 2nd order diffusion) from 0.4 to 0.1
  • Reduced codamp (divergence damping constant) from 9.0 to 3.0
    • 2011/09/02/00 Rogers, Yanqiu Zhu
  • Changed GSI analysis scripts to use operational NDAS/NAM prepbufr files, they were instead using test files from Dennis Keyser with the NRL Aircraft QC applied
  • NDAS cycle (soil states and satellite bias corrections) restarted from NAMX control
    • 2011/08/29/18 Janjic
  • Resolution factor for DSP's ("fres') increased from 0.5 to 0.75
  • NDAS cycle (soil states and satellite bias corrections) restarted from NAMX control
    • 2011/08/08/12 Ferrier, Janjic
  • Start of new NMMB parallel with the following changes to the convective parameterization
    1. Run with experimental BMJ scheme ("bmj_dev")
    2. Reduce resolution factor for DSP's ("fres') from 1.0 to 0.5