Resolutions and Grids

Grid combinations in E3SM are given short names, or aliases, following the grids that the atmosphere, land, ocean (ATM,LND,OCN) models are setup for. Resolutions are typically named following the convention A_B_C where A=ATM, B=LND/ROF, C=OCN/ICE. In the special case where the atmosphere and land are on the same grid, only the common ATM/LND and the OCN/ICE grid are used in the resolution string, i.e., <atm/lnd grid name>_<ocn/ice grid name>. For example, a resolution like ne30pg2_oECv3 implies that the atmosphere and the land models are both configured to run on the ne30pg2 grid, while the ocean and ice models are configured to run on the oECv3 grid. We often refer to this type of configuration as a “bi-grid” resolution, since there are only two grids we are concerned with. This is to distinguish it from the more general “tri-grid”, which would have atmosphere, land, and ocean all on separate grids.

To see all grid combinations available, run “./query_config --grids" in cime/scripts

A breakdown of some grid configurations is listed below.

Common place to look cime_config/config_grids.xml