Modernizing MOM6-examples

[marshallward]

This is a summary of a recent discussion among the major MOM6 contributors about the current state of the MOM6-examples repository, and how we could update it to reflect the newest and most useful configurations.

Observations

• Many configurations reflect legacy configs

  • Known bugs are turned on (for reproducibility)
  • Modern numerical solvers are disabled

• Newer methods and configurations are not highlighted

• Current experiments do not reflect the latest production experiments

Challenges

• MOM6-examples acts as GFDL's regression suite

  • Configuration changes risk changing answers
  • Not all configurations are tested (e.g. ISOMIP), often due to size
  • Number of tests is restricted to limit test runtime

• Input data sets

  • Many experiments require large data sets, often on the order of GB in size
  • figshare or zenodo for smaller files (@raphaeldussin)
  • Cloud hosting services through NOAA or NASA (@sanAkel)

• Preparation of input and preprocessing continue to be difficult for new users (@sanAkel)

Proposals

• Permit updated versions with newest solvers and bugfixes, perhaps alongside legacy configurations (@jiandewang)

• Rename MOM6-examples and develop a new modern MOM6-examples, with fewer reproducibility requirements (@ezaron)

  • Perhaps create a "MOM6-GFDL-examples" to decouple GFDL testing needs

• Consider integration with analysis tools (@Hallberg-NOAA, @raphaeldussin)

Existing repositories

We should acknowledge that some of this has already been happening, with some examples below. (Links will be updated as provided)

• MOM6-examples
• SIS2-icepack-examples (@MJHarrison-GFDL)
• SIS2-examples (@kshedstrom)
• MARBL test suite (@mnlevy1981, @klindsay28)
• Redesign of MOM6-examples