HEMCO diagnostics¶

Overview¶

HEMCO diagnostics are organized in collections, with each collection consisting of a dynamic number of diagnostic fields (aka diagnostic containers). Each collection has a fixed output frequency (DiagnFreq) assigned to it. All fields within a collection are written out at the same interval: Hourly, Daily, etc.

The contents of a collection (i.e. the diagnostics containers) are defined at the beginning of a simulation and become continuously updated and written out during the simulation. A number of attributes attached to each diagnostic define the properties of a given field and how to perform field operations such as time averaging, unit conversion, etc. These attributes include the field name (this will also be the netCDF variable name), the designated field output units, the averaging method, and an explicit unit conversion factor. The latter three determine how data is internally stored and returned for output. The data returned for output is not necessarily in the same units as it is internally stored.

By default, HEMCO assumes the passed fields are in kg/m2/s, stores them in kg/m2, and returns the average flux over the designated output interval in the units assigned to this field (default is kg/m2/s). This behavior can be avoided by explicitly setting the averaging method.

TODO: Find out where these get defined

Currently supported averaging methods are:

instantaneous¶: Instantaneous values (recommended method).

mean¶: Arithmetic mean over the diagnostic interval.

sum¶: Total sum over the diagnostic interval.

cumulsum¶: Cumulative sum since simulation start.

Explicitly setting the averaging method will disable automatic unit conversion and the fields passed to this diagnostic will be stored as is. The optional unit conversion factor can be set to perform a unit conversion before returning the field for output.

Note

It is highly recommended to explicitly set the averaging method for all fields that are not in kg/m2/s.

Built-in diagnostic collections¶

HEMCO has three built-in diagnostic collections (Default, Restart, and Manual) that are automatically created on every HEMCO run. These collections are used by HEMCO for internal data exchange and to write out restart variables. These collections are ‘open’, i.e. the user can add additional diagnostic fields to them if needed. The user can also define new collections (see below).

The Default collection¶

The Default collection contains emission diagnostics intended to be written to disk, e.g. for analysis purposes. All fields of the default collection are written out at the frequency provided in setting DiagnFreq in the settings section of the HEMCO configuration file. The name of the corresponding diagnostics files can be specified via the DiagnPrefix setting. The simulation date at the time of output will be appended to the diagnostics prefix, e.g. the diagnostics for Aug 1, 2008 will be written as HEMCO_Diagnostics.200808010000.nc. The datetime can denote the beginning, middle, or end (default) of the time interval, as specified by setting DiagnTimeStamp (see below).

Several options for the default diagnostic collection can be specified at the top of the HEMCO configuration file file. Commonly-used options are DiagnFile, DiagnFreq, and DiagnPrefix.

Configuration file for the Default collection¶

You may specify the name of the Default diagnostics configuration file with the DiagnFile option in the HEMCO configuration file. This file, which is customarily named HEMCO_Diagn.rc, uses the following format:

# Name         Spec ExtNr  Cat Hier Dim Unit     LongName
EmisNO_Total   NO   -1     -1  -1   2   kg/m2/s  NO_emission_flux_from_all_sectors

The columns of HEMCO_Diagn.rc allow you to specify several options:

Name¶: netCDF variable name under which this diagnostic quantity will be named in the HEMCO diagnostic output files.

Spec¶: Species short name (same as in the HEMCO configuration file) .

ExtNr¶

Extension number (same as in the HEMCO configuration file) .

The -1 value means to sum over all extensions.

Cat¶

Category (same as in the HEMCO configuration file).

The -1 value means to sum over all categories.

Hier¶

Hierarchy (same as in the HEMCO configuration file).

The -1 value means to sum over all categories.

Dim¶

Number of dimensions that you wish this diagnostic to have:

1: Scalar
2: Lat-lon or X-Y
3: Lat-lon-lev or X-Y-Z

LongName¶: A longer descriptive name for the diagnostic. This will be used to define the netCDF long_name variable attribute in the HEMCO diagnostic files.

Here are a few examples.

Basic usage

Adding these entries to HEMCO_Config.rc will make HEMCO write out total NO and CO emissions, as well as GFED biomass burning CO emissions (e.g. only emissions from ExtNr 111):

# Name         Spec ExtNr  Cat Hier Dim Unit     LongName
EmisNO_Total   NO   -1     -1  -1   2   kg/m2/s  NO_emission_flux_from_all_sectors
EmisCO_Total   CO   -1     -1  -1   2   kg/m2/s  CO_emission_flux_from_all_sectors
EmisCO_GFED    CO   111    -1  -1   2   kg/m2/s  CO_emission_flux_from_biomass_burning

Archive diagnostics for regional emissions

To diagnose regional emissions, you must set ExtNr, Cat, and Hier accordingly. The example below defines a diagnostic entry for CO emissions from the EPA16 USA inventory:
```
# Name         Spec ExtNr  Cat Hier Dim Unit     Longname
EmisCO_EPA16   CO   0      1   50   2   kg/m2/s  CO_emission_flux_from_EPA16_inventory
```
You will have to look up the relevant category and hierarchy values for each emissions inventory in the HEMCO configuration file.

Tip

If you are not sure what the container name, extension number, category, and hierarchy are for a given diagnostic, set Verbose: true in the HEMCO configuration file, and run a very short simulation (a couple of model hours). Then look at the log file output to determine what these values should be.
Use caution when summing over all extensions/categories/hierarchies

If you wish to obtain emissions from a specific inventory or sector, then it is important that you define valid values for all attributes up to the hierarchy. As soon as you set an attribute to default (-1), HEMCO will take the sum up to this attribute.

In the example below, we intended to define a diagnostic for CO emissions from the EPA16 USA inventory. But because Cat = -1 is specified, this will return CO emissions summed over all categories (= total CO emissions) instead of CO only from EPA16.
```
# Name          Spec ExtNr  Cat Hier Dim Unit     Longname
EmisCO_EPA16    CO   0      -1  50   2   kg/m2/s  CO_emission_flux_from_EPA16_inventory
```

Restart¶

The output frequency of the Restart collection is End, meaning that its content is only written out at the end of a simulation. The HEMCO Restart collection primarily consists of a suite of fields needed by some of the HEMCO extensions for a “warm” HEMCO restart (e.g. the 10-day running mean temperature, etc.). These fields are automatically added to the HEMCO restart collection and filled within the respective extensions. Once archived, fields can be made available to an extension via the HEMCO configuration file.

Manual¶

Fields in the Manual collection do not become written out to disk. Rather, they provide a tool to exchange data files within and outside of HEMCO, e.g. to pass sector-specific emission fluxes from HEMCO to the atmospheric model.

Some HEMCO extensions automatically create and fill a number of manual diagnostics. For example, the PARANOX extension (used in GEOS-Chem) stores the O3 and HNO3 loss fluxes in the manual diagnostics PARANOX_O3_DEPOSITION_FLUX and PARANOX_HNO3_DEPOSITION_FLUX, respectively.

Importing diagnostic content into an external model¶

The content of the Default collection can be specified through the HEMCO diagnostics definitions file (specified by the DiagnFile option).

The content of the Manual and Restart collections currently need to be defined within the model code (e.g. it is hard-coded). This should be done in high-level routines (at the HEMCO-to-model interface level).

Module hco_diagn_mod.F90 (found in HEMCO/src/Core/) provides a suite of routines to define, fill, obtain, etc. diagnostic fields. Similarly, hco_restart_mod.F90 (also found in HEMCO/src/Core/) provides routines for managing HEMCO restart variables.