What is the real meaning of "pcols"?

[abnian@163_com]

Hi everybody!
In the program ppgrid.f90 there is a sentence like this :
"integer pcols ! number of columns (max)".
But I can not understand the meaning of "pcols", What is the meaning of "columns" here?

 

[rneale]

pcols represents the number of physical columns i.e. number of atmospheric grid-boxes (the column sretches from the ground to the top of the model)
This routine ppgrid.F90 is initializing the model arrays (maximum size required) used for each mpi task. mpi tasks relate to how the model splits the whole global grid out to the number of procesees available on a parallel computer.

 

[abnian@163_com]

Dear rneale:
I'm very glad to see your reply,thank you very much for your help!