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Welcome to the documentation for the ACCESS-OM3 ocean-seaice model configurations!

ACCESS-OM3 is the third generation of the ACCESS global ocean - sea ice model. It uses up-to-date releases of the MOM6 ocean model and CICE6 sea ice model. It is the first ACCESS model that couples model components using CMEPS (Community Mediator for Earth Prediction Systems), built on top of NUOPC (National Unified Operational Prediction Capability) infrastructure.

ACCESS-OM3 Quickstart

If you would like to simply run the model, see the How to Run ACCESS OM3 documentation.

Hive Run ACCESS-OM3

ACCESS-OM3 Documentation Overview

See the navigation links on the left. Some reading tips, see:

  • Contributing if you'd like to get involved / provide feedback on ACCESS-OM3;
  • Inputs if you would like to understand how the input files are generated;
  • Configuration choices/Configurations for information/background about specific configurations. The remaining sub-sections in Configuration choices provide background on key files and background on how ACCESS-OM3 configurations work/can be customised. These parts are likely of most interest to users.
  • Infrastructure is likely of more interest to ACCESS-NRI staff and developers. Having said this, some users, might find pages such as Architecture useful background.

ACCESS-OM3-Configs Overview

ACCESS-OM3 configurations are provided via branches in the access-om3-configs GitHub repository. The access-om3-configs repository contains several configurations using the following components:

  • MOM6 ocean model
  • CICE sea ice model
  • WW3 wave model
  • DATM atmosphere data model
  • DROF runoff data model

All the configurations use the Payu workflow management tool, and pre-built executables available on NCI.

Repository structure

The main branch does not store any model configurations, only documentation.

Each configuration in github.com/ACCESS-NRI/access-om3-configs repository is stored as a git branch. Most of the branches are named according to the following naming scheme:

{dev|release}-{MODEL_COMPONENTS}_{nominal_resolution}km_{forcing_data}_{forcing_method}[+{modifier}]

where {MODEL_COMPONENTS} is an acronym specifying the active model components in the following order:

  • M: MOM6
  • C: CICE6
  • W: WW3

and the nominal resolution is given in kilometers, corresponding to the nominal resolution in degrees as follows:

  • 100km: 1°
  • 25km: 0.25°
  • 10km: 0.1°
  • 8km: 1/12°

For regional configurations, a short word describing the location of the domain is included before the nominal resolution. For example:

  • tas5km: 5km resolution around Tasmainia
  • superoz4km 4km resolution around Australia

Additional configuration information, like if the configuration includes biogeochemistry, is appended to the name as a modifier, e.g.

  • +wombatlite if the configuration uses WOMBATlite biogeochemistry

Currently the following released configurations are available:

Currently the following development configurations are available:

Warning

These dev-* configurations are still under development and should not be used for production runs.

MOM6-CICE6-DATM-DROF configurations

100km configurations:

25km configurations:

Regional configurations:

MOM6-CICE6-WW3-DATM-DROF configurations

The dev-MCW_100km_jra_ryf configuration has been archived, and isn't currently maintained.

Comparing configuration branches

GitHub's branch comparison view can be used to see exactly what differs between any two configurations. This is useful, for example, to see how a dev-* configuration differs from the latest release-* configuration it's based on, or how two configurations at different resolutions differ.

To compare any two branches, visit a URL of the form:

https://github.com/ACCESS-NRI/access-om3-configs/compare/{base-branch}..{compare-branch}

replacing {base-branch} and {compare-branch} with the names of the branches you want to compare. This shows the diff between the {base-branch} and {compare-branch}. Lines shown in red are only present in {base-branch} (i.e. absent from {compare-branch}) and lines shown in green are only present in {compare-branch} (i.e. added relative to {base-branch}).

Note that the .. produces a "two-dot" diff directly between the two refs, rather than the "three-dot" diff (against their merge base) that GitHub uses for pull requests.

Tags or commit hashes can be used in place of branch names, which is useful for comparing against a specific released version or commit, rather than the (potentially newer) tip of a branch.

For example, to compare the release-MC_25km_jra_iaf-1.0-beta release tag with the dev-MC_25km_jra_iaf branch, visit:

https://github.com/ACCESS-NRI/access-om3-configs/compare/release-MC_25km_jra_iaf-1.0-beta..dev-MC_25km_jra_iaf