is it possible to output ICEPACK restart files as NetCDF format instead of Binary

[chenshzh12]

Hi there,

I am writing to ask if it is possible to output the ICEPACK restart file as NetCDF format? The default restart file is .bin which is hard for me to figure out how to read it. I actually set ICE_IOTYPE in icepack.setting and icepack.build to be 'netcdf'. But it does not seem to work out for me. ICEPACK still gives me the restart files in binary format. I know that CICE can output the restart file as NetCDF so I am wondering if ICEPACK can do the same thing? Any suggestion would be very much appreciated!

Best,
Shengzhe

 

[dbailey]

We made the decision to remove netCDF from the Icepack build. Perhaps this is something we would consider adding back in at some point.

 

[chenshzh12]

We made the decision to remove netCDF from the Icepack build. Perhaps this is something we would consider adding back in at some point.

Hi Prof. Bailey,

Thank you very much for your quick response. Adding back netCDF to Icepack would be extremely helpful to someone like me who is not so familiar with Fortran binary unformatted data file and netCDF restart file is a lot easier to read and modify and let users customize their own initial conditions for researches. Thanks again.

Best,
Shengzhe

 

[tcraig]

As @dbailey noted, the initial Icepack implementation was targeted to something simple with minimal external library requirements. The strategy is evolving, and it's likely that we will be adding netcdf capability to the Icepack driver to support netcdf history and/or restart files, but the columnphysics itself will not have any netcdf. This is on the list of things to do, but is not highest priority at the moment. It's helpful to have community feedback on interests and needs. Thanks @chenshzh12 for raising this question.

 

[chenshzh12]

As @dbailey noted, the initial Icepack implementation was targeted to something simple with minimal external library requirements. The strategy is evolving, and it's likely that we will be adding netcdf capability to the Icepack driver to support netcdf history and/or restart files, but the columnphysics itself will not have any netcdf. This is on the list of things to do, but is not highest priority at the moment. It's helpful to have community feedback on interests and needs. Thanks @chenshzh12 for raising this question.

Thank you for your information. Much appreciation! Hope to see netCDF back to Icepack soon. As a model user - not a developer apparently, otherwise I guess I will be able to read the unformatted binary data file by learning the icedrv_restart.f90, netCDF format can definitely help a lot to read, modify customize, etc. Besides, I think the column model should get as much attention/support as the 3D model, which would be very helpful for students like me as they are easier to learn and practice from the first place : )

Best,
Shengzhe