[MITgcm-devel] question regarding merging the shelfice and icefront packages

[Fenty, Ian G (329C)]

Dear ice shelf/ice front concerned readers,

I've been working on merging the shelf ice and ice front packages.  In shelfice, mass fluxes are always handed through EmPmR and T and S tendencies are handled via surfaceForcingT and S.    In contrast, the icefront package does not treat mass fluxes and T and S tendencies in the icefront package are handled by operating on gT and gS directly.  I should also point out that in shelfice the T and S tendencies are handled by directly operating on gT and gS when SHELFICEboundaryLayer=.TRUE.,

I am wondering is there any reason why one couldn't or shouldn't use addMass to handle all mass tendencies and directly operate on gT and gS to handle all T and S tendencies that arising from melting and freezing irrespective of k level?

Is there something special about applying tendencies to the surface level besides the convenience factor having access to surfaceForcingT and S and EmPmR?  

Finally, Ou and I noticed a giant STOP in shelfice_forcing_surf.F when 'useRealFreshWaterFlux=.TRUE.' and ALLOW_AUTODIFF is defined (lines 96-108) that prevent meltwater mass fluxes from contributing to EmPmR.  Is this STOP necessary or an artifact from an earlier experimental setup?

Cheers,
Ian