5. SDF and Namelist Samples and Best Practices

The public release of the UFS MR Weather App includes four supported physics suites: GFS_v15p2, GFS_v15p2_no_nsst, GFS_v16beta, and GFS_v16beta_no_nsst. You will find the Suite Definition Files (SDFs) for these suites in

https://github.com/NOAA-EMC/fv3atm/tree/ufs-v1.0.0/ccpp/suites

(no other SDFs are available with this release). You will find the namelists for the C96 configuration here:

https://github.com/ufs-community/ufs-weather-model/tree/ufs-v1.0.0/parm/ccpp_v15p2_c96.nml.IN

and

https://github.com/ufs-community/ufs-weather-model/tree/ufs-v1.0.0/parm/ccpp_v16beta_c96.nml.IN

As noted in the file names, these namelists are for the operational (v15p2) and developmental (v16beta) GFS suites. Each of these namelists are relevant to the suites with and without the SST prediction scheme, that is, they are relevant for the suite that employs NSST and for the suite that employs the simple ocean model (no_nsst). The only difference in the namelist regarding how SST prediction is addressed is variable nstf_name. For more information about this variable and for information about namelist options for higher resolution configurations, please consult the CCPP v4 Scientific Documentation.

The four CCPP suites for the UFS MR Weather App release are supported in four grid resolutions: C96, C192, C384, and C768, with 64 vertical levels.

An in depth description of the namelist settings, SDFs, and parameterizations used in all supported suites can be found in the CCPP v4 Scientific Documentation. Note both suites do not use stochastic physics by default, but the stochastic physics can be activated following the instructions described in the stochastic physics v1 user’s guide.

Both the SDF and the input.nml contain information about how to specify the physics suite. Some of this information is redundant, and the user must make sure they are compatible. The safest practice is to use the SDF and namelist provided for each suite, since those are supported configurations.

Changes to the SDF must be accompanied by corresponding changes to the namelist. While there is not a one-to-one correspondence between the namelist and the SDF, Table 5.1 shows some variables in the namelist that must match the SDF.

Table 5.1 Variables related to PBL options

Namelist option

Meaning

Possible Values

Default

Used with CCPP scheme

Recommentation

PBL-related variables

do_myjpbl

Flag to activate the MYJ PBL scheme

T

F

mypbl_wrapper

Set to F for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

do_myjsfc

Flag to activate the MYJ PBL surface layer scheme

T, F

F

myjsfc_wrapper

Set to F for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

do_mynnedmf

Flag to activate the MYNN-EDMF scheme

T, F

F

mynnedmf_wrapper

Set to F for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

do_ysu

Flag to activate the YSU PBL scheme

T, F

F

ysudif

Set to F for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

hybedmf

Flag to activate the K-based PBL scheme

T, F

F

hedmf

Set to T for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

isatedmf

Flag for version of scale-aware TKE-based EDMF scheme

0, 1

0

0=satmedmfvdif, 1=satmedmfvdifq

Set to 0 for GFSv15p2* and 1 for GFSv16beta*

ism

Flag to choose a land surface model to use

0, 1, 2

1

1=lsm_noah, 2=lsm_ruc

Set to 1 for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

satedmf

Flag to activate the scale-aware TKE-based EDMF scheme

T, F

F

satmedmfvdif or satmedmfvdifq

Set to T for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

shinhong

Flag to activate the Shin-Hong PBL parameterization

T, F

F

shinhongdif

Set to F for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

Convection-releated flags

cscnv

Flag to activate the Chikira-Sugiyama deep convection scheme

T, F

F

cs_conv

Set to F for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

do_aw

Flag to activate the Arakawa-Wu extension to the Chikira-Sugiyama deep convection scheme

T, F

F

cs_conv_aw_adj

Set to F for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

imfdeepcnv

Flag to choose a mass flux deep convective scheme

-1, 2, 3, 4

-1

-1=no deep convection*, 2=samfshalcnv, 3=cu_gf_driver, 4=cu_ntiedtke

Set to 2 for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

imfshalcvn

Flag to choose a mass flux shallow convective scheme

-1, 2, 3, 4

-1

-1=no deep convection*, 2=samfshalcnv, 3=cu_gf_driver, 4=cu_ntiedtke

Set to 2 for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

*Even when imfdeepcvn=-1, the Chikira-Sugiyama deep convection scheme may be specified using cscnv=T.

Other miscellaneous changes to the SDF that must be accompanied by corresponding changes in the namelist are listed in Table 5.2.

Table 5.2 Miscellaneous namelist variables and their relation to the SDF

Namelist option

Meaning

Possible Values

Default

Used with CCPP scheme

Recommendation

Miscellaneous variables

do_myjsfc

Flag to activate the MYJ PBL surface scheme

T, F

F

mynnsfc_wrapper

Set to F for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

do_shoc

Flag to activate the Simplified Higher-Order Closure (SHOC) parameterization

T, F

F

shoc

Set to F for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

do_ugwp**

Flag to activate the unified Gravity Wave Physics parameterization

T, F

F

cires_ugwp

Set to F for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

imp_physics

Flag to choose a microphysics scheme

8, 10, 11

99

8=mp_thompson, 10=m_micro, 11=gfdl_cloud_microphysics

Set to 11 for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

lsm

Flag to choose a land surface model to use

0, 1, 2

1

1=lsm_noah, 2=lsm_ruc

Set to 1 for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

lsoil

Number of soil layers

4, 9

4

4 for lsm_noah, 9 for lsm_ruc

Set to 4 for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

h2o_phys

Flag for stratosphere h2o scheme

T, F

h2ophys

Set to T for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

oz_phys_2015

Flag for new (2015) ozone physics

T, F

ozphys_2015

Set to T for GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta*

**The CIRES Unified Gravity Wave Physics (cires_ugwp) scheme is used in GFSv15p2* and GFSv16beta* SDFs with do_ugwp=F in the namelist. In this setting, the cires_ugwp calls the operational GFS v15.2 orographic gravity wave drag (gwdps) scheme. When do_ugwp=T, the cires_ugwp scheme calls an experimental orographic gravity wave (gwdps_v0).

Note that some namelist variables are not available for use with CCPP.

  • do_deep. In order to disable deep convection, it is necessary to remove the deep convection scheme from the SDF.

  • shal_cnv. In order to disable shallow convection, it is necessary to remove the deep convection scheme from the SDF.

  • ldiag3d and ldiag_ugwp. Must be F for CCPP runs.

  • gwd_opt. Ignored in CCPP-supported suites.

When certain parameterizations are turned on, additional namelist options can be used (they are ignored otherwise). Some examples are shown in Table 5.3.

Table 5.3 Enabled namelist variables

Namelist setting

Enabled namelist variables

do_ugwp=T

All variables in namelist record &cires_ugwp_nml plus do_tofd. Additionally, if namelist variable cnvgwd=T and the third and fourth position of namelist array cdmbgwd are both 1, then the convective gravity wave drag that is part of cires_ugwp will be called. (Not supported with the UFS)

do_mynnedmf=T

bl_mynn_tkeadvect, bl_mynn_edmf, bl_mynn_edmf_mom (Not supported with the UFS)

imp_physics=99

psautco and prautco (Not supported with the UFS)

imp_physics=10

mg_* (Not supported with UFS)

imp_physics=11

All variables in namelist record gfdl_cloud_microphysics_nml and lgfdlmprad

satedmf=T

isatedmf