[MITgcm-devel] An overdue revision of some diagnostic variable names and their descriptions

[Fenty, Ian G (329C)]

Hi MITgcm devel,

In an effort to make our output more comprehensible to outsiders I think we should consider updating the names of some of our diagnostic output descriptions.

First, terms such as UVELMASS and UTHMASS are not “Zonal components of velocity”, they are the component of velocity in the model grid’s ‘x’ direction.  In the LLC tiles, 6 of the 13 tiles (or 2 of 5 faces) are rotated by 90 degrees so that flow in the ‘+x’ direction is actually negative quasi-meridional.  Moreover, with the Arctic Cap tile 7 (face 3) flow in the positive ‘x’ direction is eastward along its bottom edge (first row) and westward along its upper edge (last row).   A similar story applies for flow in the +y direction.  So, can we change these names to reflect the fact that ‘u’ and ‘v’ are defined not by the compass but by the local orientation of the curvilinear grid?

Second, the name ‘MASS’ and the description ‘Mass-Weighted’ is also somewhat misleading because these terms are not weighted by mass at all, but by hFac.  Perhaps a more descriptive term would be ‘Geometry-Weighted’ or some other name that reflects the possible non-unity value of hFac?

This topic has come up many times since we’ve adopted the LLC grids for the ECCO Central Production and other projects.  I’d like to see this sorted out to reduce the confusion that seems to hit everybody encountering these variables for the first time.


  *   Ian



45 |UVELMASS| 50 |    46 |UUr     MR|m/s             |Zonal Mass-Weighted Comp of Velocity (m/s)

46 |VVELMASS| 50 |    45 |VVr     MR|m/s             |Meridional Mass-Weighted Comp of Velocity (m/s)


50 |UTHMASS | 50 |    51 |UUr     MR|degC.m/s        |Zonal Mass-Weight Transp of Pot Temp
51 |VTHMASS | 50 |    50 |VVr     MR|degC.m/s        |Meridional Mass-Weight Transp of Pot Temp

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