******************************************************************************** Announcing the release of MCIP Version 3.4.1 (December 2008) ******************************************************************************** The MCIP code is updated to version 3.4.1. Changes to MCIPv3.4 and MCIPv3.4.1 were overseen by Tanya Otte (NOAA/ARL/ASMD and EPA/ORD/NERL, RTP, NC). Some updates to the M3Dry dry deposition module were provided by Jesse Bash (EPA/ORD/NERL, RTP, NC) and William Hutzell (EPA/ORD/NERL, RTP, NC). Some of the WRF data sets that were used for testing were contributed by Robert Gilliam (EPA/ORD/NERL, RTP, NC). Additional suggestions for using data sets with the Pleim-Xiu land-surface model in WRF were provided by Jonathan Pleim (EPA/ORD/NERL, RTP, NC). Processing of GOES-East satellite fields was contributed by Arastoo Pour Biazar (Univ. of Alabama at Huntsville). Changes to Henry's Law constant were researched by Ann Marie Carlton (EPA/ORD/NERL, RTP, NC), and optimizations to the Henry's Law constant function were contributed by Shawn Roselle (EPA/ORD/NERL, RTP, NC). Jonathan Pleim was also instrumental in developing the changes between MCIPv3.4 and MCIPv3.4.1. User contributions are also noted below. The detailed list of changes to the MCIP code is in the CHANGES file, which is part of the MCIP tar file in the MCIP2/doc directory. *** NOTE: Users are encouraged to update to this version of MCIP, particularly for WRF-based applications. *** NOTE: The way that grids are defined in WRF allows additional flexibility beyond what could be done in MM5. There are some idiosyncracies with trying to make WRF's grid definitions compatible with the I/O API GRIDDESC and headers. This may be a source of frustration, and it is subject to change AGAIN in future releases of MCIP. Please be advised that this is an active area of further development which we hope will be resolved soon. *** NOTE: In MCIPv3.4.1, the tangent Lambert conformal case has been prevented because it could give questionable results in downstream codes (i.e., the Spatial Allocator). There is no test data set to resolve this issue. In the interest of time, MCIPv3.4.1 is being released with this restriction. It is hoped that none of the user base is adversely affected by this restriction. *** NOTE: The GRIDDESC for WRF polar stereographic and Mercator projections has NOT been tested in MCIPv3.4 and MCIPv3.4.1. It, too, is subject to change in future releases of MCIP. There are no warnings in the log files on this aspect of MCIP. *** NOTE: The dry deposition calculations will be removed from MCIP in the next major release of the code. These calculations are now available in CMAQv4.7, and there is additional science available to compute bi-directional fluxes (i.e., evasion or emissions) of some species in CMAQ. *** NOTE: Please consider updating I/O API v3.0 to the latest update. There is a new option to define a spherical earth with the radius that is consistent with the released code in MM5 and WRF (6370.0 km). That is normal sphere option 20 in I/O API. Also updated with this release is the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) file, which is located in the MCIP tar file in the MCIP2/doc directory. Users are encouraged to read the FAQ to obtain information specific to changes made in this release, particularly on applications that use input data from WRF. ***Users should read the FAQ before submitting inquiries to M3User, M3List, Bugzilla, CMAS, or the code developers.*** Interactions with the following users (in alphabetical order) have resulted in some of the code changes/corrections that were made for MCIPv3.4: Kirk Baker (EPA/OAQPS, RTP, NC) Satoru Chatani (Toyota Central R&D Labs, Inc., Nagoya, Japan) Jason Ching (EPA/NERL/AMD, RTP, NC) Carlie Coats (Baron Advanced Meteorological Systems, LLC, Raleigh, NC) Nutthida Kitwiroon (King's College London, London, United Kingdom) Jerry Lin (Lamar Univ., Beaumont, TX) Feng Liu (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL) Lara Reynolds (CSC, RTP, NC) Erick Sperandio (Univ. Federal do Espirito Santo, Brazil) Mukul Tewari (NCAR, Boulder, CO) Melanie Wilson (CSC, RTP, NC) Fuquan Yang (National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada) Interactions with the following users (in alphabetical order) have resulted in some of the code changes/corrections that were made for MCIPv3.4.1: Neil Davis (UNC Institute for the Environment, Chapel Hill, NC) Limei Ran (UNC Institute for the Environment, Chapel Hill, NC) Aijun Xiu (UNC Institute for the Environment, Chapel Hill, NC) The following are the notable changes in MCIPv3.4 and MCIPv3.4.1: 1. Added processing option to include GOES-East satellite analyses to replace cloud top, cloud bottom, and cloud cover and to add cloud transmissivity for use in photolysis in CMAQ. Software components were contributed by University of Alabama at Huntsville. Requires additional data sets and preprocessing package available from University of Alabama at Huntsville. 2. Corrected the scaling parameter used to estimate the friction velocity over water in surface waters (variable "D3" in M3Dry). Added an exception for elemental mercury deposition to wet soil surfaces as most measurements show evasion from recently wet soil surfaces. Also added trap for undefined dry deposition velocties (e.g., NaN) in M3Dry. Added dry deposition velocities for five air toxic species. Changed calculations to use 2-m mixing ratio rather than layer-1 mixing ratio (even though they could be the same) because Q2 is more appropriate. 3. Added 2-m mixing ratio (Q2) to the METCRO2D output. Use Q2 directly from MM5 or WRF, if it is available; otherwise use layer-1 QV. Modified PBLSUP to use Q2 rather than layer-1 QV to diagnose near-surface variables. Added turbulent kinetic energy (TKE or TKEF) to the METCRO3D output, if it is available from MM5 or WRF. 4. Added sample print statements to log file for percentage of urban area and fractional land use when those fields are available. 5. Added nudging coefficients to metadata. 6. Added earth radius assumed in MCIP to user input and to metadata. 7. For MM5 only: Changed code to use values for gravitational constant and dry gas constant that are consistent with MM5 system rather than CMAQ system for computing coordinate-based fields. Removed explicit calculation of reference P-star and use field directly from MM5 output. 8. For MM5 only: Corrected reading snow cover field for MM5 simulations with snow effects off. 9. For WRF only: Added preliminary support for the urban canopy model. 10. For WRF only: Changed settings for XCENT_GD, YCENT_GD, XORIG_GD, and YORIG_GD in GRIDDESC and M3IO headers for Lambert conformal projection and polar stereographic projection so that headers will be compatible with M3IO utility routines LL2LAM and LAM2LL. (Changed again between MCIPv3.4 and MCIPv3.4.1 to prevent problem in Spatial Allocator.) 11. For WRF only: Allow skin temperature to be filled by top-layer soil temperature, if skin temperature is unavailable in output. 12. For WRF only: Expand tables of roughness length, leaf area index, vegetation fraction, stomatal resistance, and F2 values to include 33 USGS land use categories. Added error-checking when ZNT is set from the lookup table for WRF. Corrected season assignment for lookup table for the Southern Hemisphere. 13. For WRF only: Added support for WRFv3 (released by NCAR in April 2008). 14. For WRF only: Changed setting for LAI to a fixed value if NOAH LSM was used with WRF and if LAI is not found in the input meteorology files. Check LAI, RA, and RSTOM to ensure that there are non-zero values in the fields, if they exist. If the values of RA and/or RSTOM are all 0.0, reset IFRESIST flag so that they will be calculated later. If LAI is in output but is 0.0, set LAI to realistic values for NOAH LSM. 15. For WRF only: Changed read of vegetation fraction to preferentially use VEGF_PX rather than VEGFRA for Pleim-Xiu land-surface model. 16. For WRF only: Changed criteria for setting number of land use categories when netCDF dimension "land_cat_stag" does not exist. 17, For WRF only: Added error checking to ensure that WRF files used in an MCIP run are from the same simulation so that incremental precipitation totals are processed correctly. 18. Updated Henry's Law constants for O3, NO3, hexane, octane, nonane, and methanol, and updated isoprene reference following changes made to analogous routine in CMAQ. 19. Removed internal variable NTHIKD and removed exception cases for writing boundaries of zero thickness. 20. Increased maximum number of meteorology input files to 300 to accommodate 5-minute input for one day. 21. Changed code to explicitly read free-form F90-compliant "include" files from I/O API rather than duplicate their contents.