Priorities

The aim of this page is to record progress with UKCA priority tasks.

Progress with priorities table

ACTION REQUEST FROM UKCA SCIENCE & MANAGEMENT BOARD: CMG to provide list of priorities & their status.

The current priorities are:

#	Tickets	Description	Owner	Status	Technical urgency High / Normal / NA	Science urgency High / Normal / NA	Milestone or date targeted	Complete
1	ukca:#28	Removal of remaining UM module dependencies in non-UM/LFRic builds	John Hemmings	This will allow UKCA to be built with no UM repository modules (7 are currently needed). Unassigned ticket UKCA:#28 covers most of the required work. [Essential: It must be possible to use UKCA without access to the UM repository.]	High	NA	UM autumn 2024 release	Yes
2		Standalone UKCA configurations	Luke Abraham	See UKCA Box Model page. Currently still require non-UKCA code in build process. Branch needs to be committed to UKCA trunk.	???	NA	???
3		Updates/fixes to GLOMAP routines	Dan Grosvenor	Graham and Sandip developed updates for stratospheric aerosol on old branch It is desirable to include this to the trunk at some point November 23 - we clarified what this priority was Graham and Sandip developed updates for stratospheric aerosol on old branch It is desirable to include this to the trunk at some point (originally owned by Adrian Hill)	NA	???	???
4	ukca:#30 lfric_apps:#658	Reworking of internal data flow for API-level multi-thread capability	not Chris Maynard	We have work arounds for the original purpose (couple with NAME) However, it seems this will also be required for central systems teams purposes. May be covered under NG-ARCH.	High	NA	End of 2025
5	ukca:#194 ukca:#137	Photolysis API development (FastJX)	Mohit Dalvi, Charlotte Norris	Ongoing. Development branch working, preparing to lodge. LFRic: recommendation to convert rates file to NetCDF	High	NA	Oct 2024
6	ukca:#173 um:#7647	Photolysis API development (2-D)	Vivien Bright, Ben Drummond	Ongoing	High/ Normal (NAME-AQ)	NA	End 2024
7	For radaer aod ukca:#235 lfric_apps:#440 For ???  ???	LFRic diagnostics infrastructure and high priority diagnostics (as used in auto-assess and the UKCA evaluation suite)	For aerosols: Alan J Hewitt Leighton Regayre Anthony Jones For ???  ???	Alan is targeting vn13.8 for Radaer aod diagnostics. Leighton Regayre will be adding further aerosol diagnostics I am not sure if chemistry is included here - AJH	High	NA
8		Glomap aerosol and GPU	Mark Richardson (main) Alan J Hewitt	Update - Jan 25 First project report delivered Update - April 24 Covered under NG-ARCH.	High	NA	Gen 2 HPC prototype 2025
9		Photolysis and GPU	Joe Wallwork Joe Abram	Under development	High	NA	Gen 2 HPC prototype 2025
10		ASAD Chemistry solver and GPU	Luke Abraham	Nov 23 - Working with PsyClone for this, as itdoes most of the directives. Will be covered under NG-ARCH.	High	NA	Gen 2 HPC prototype 2025
11		RADAER and GPU	Tom Dunstan (main) Alan J hewitt	Update - Nov 24 First project report delivered Update - April 24 Covered under NG-ARCH.	High	NA	Gen 2 HPC prototype 2025
12		All other UKCA diagnostics within LFRic	Alan J Hewitt Leighton Melissa ??? Mohit others ???		High	NA
13		RADAER API	Alan Hewitt (main)	Update - Jan 25 Lack of flexiblity when LFRic calls RADAER will soon act as block on science work. I have raised priority and will work on theis in 2025. From 2024 Radaer API on hold until after GA7 port to LFRic. Functionality of RADAER in LFRic will work without an API although it will be preferable to update this in future. Not clear if RADAER will work independently of UM in single column mode. AJH and AJ and JH and Ben Johnson and NB need to work out if desirable and practical to run independent of UM.	High	NA	2025
14	ukca:#79	Removal of photolysis support code	TBC	Photolysis still relies on UKCA to determine its environmental driver requirements. Covered by unassigned ticket UKCA:#79. Needs to be coordinated with photolysis API development. [Essential: Until this is done, photolysis cannot be run independently of UKCA and the need to retain support for photolysis adds unnecessary complexity to UKCA.]	High	NA	???
15		LFRic aerosols namelist options	Alan J hewitt (main)  ???	Currently almost all UKCA namelist options are bundled together. Now that we have upgrade macros, it should be easier to include more user options.	High	NA	We may struggle to get this done by end of 2025
16		LFRic chemistry namelist options	??? (main) Alan J Hewitt	Currently almost all UKCA namelist options are bundled together. Now that we have upgrade macros, it should be easier to include more user options.	High	NA	We may struggle to get this done by end of 2025
17		UKCA API user guide	John Hemmings (main)	This needs to include comprehensive instructions for setting up UKCA from scratch, independently from the UM, in a new parent application. [Essential.]	High	NA	2025
18	ukca:#29	New error handling method	John Hemmings	(a) Replace error handling in API routines with new method using 'error_report' (see Ticket UKCA:#29). (b) Replace all 'ereport' calls with 'error_report' and add support for optional return of control to parent. [Desirable on technical grounds: Current inconsistencies are confusing and make code over complex. (a) is therefore relatively high priority. Return-control-to-parent functionality to be completed by (b) is lower priority but is desirable for anticipated large ensemble runs (to avoid having to abandon the whole ensemble on failure).]	Normal	NA	part (a) targeted for 2025
19		RADAER optimisation integration points	Alan Hewitt Ben Johnson (main)	Have had someone looking to see if something could be changed to make it faster to make a trimmed-down version with less calculations for e.g. NWP. AJH and BJ to look at making number of integration points a user variable AJH has functionality to do 1 integration point now. BJ is going to lead this one and see what happens when run with this for use in a weather context. Would give a ~4x speed-up for RADAER.	NA on trunk	High	2024
20	ukca:#36	Tuning of SOL/INSOL simple aerosol scheme to replace MURK	Anthony Jones	This will change the default SOL/INSOL configuration to better match aerosol observations compared to Clean Air observations	NA	High	LFRic release
21	ukca:#660	Make segment size namelist option	not Chris M Alan ??? Mohit ???  ???	ukca_mode_seg_size and ukca_chem_seg_size required for GPU work	High	NA	2025
22		Review UKCA tests to cover all requirements	Luke Abraham / Mohit Dalvi	Will cover these in a table in future for review. Updated testing coverage on Linux and can run 1x1 decomposition	???	NA	???
23		Emissions flexibility	probably Mohit Dalvi???	(a) Modify ‘ukca_set_emissions’ to handle data for 1D domains (for consistency with ukca_set_environment). (b) Improve interface for registration of aerosol emissions by avoiding the need for parent to know the number of entries required for each emission in the internal data structure. (c) Improve handling of vertical scaling factors to reduce redundancy. [Desirable on technical grounds: (a), (b) and potentially (c) will remove unnecessary complexity for parents. (b) will require linked tickets for compatibility so becomes harder to do later if used by more parents. Vertical scaling factors are 3D fields, often all 0 apart from surface - cannot persist internally between time steps in LFRic/NAME and must be regenerated or handled by parent, so scope for efficiency savings with (c).]	??? Normal ???	NA	TBC
24	ukca:#123	Removal of unnecessary UM module dependencies in LFRic builds	TBC (main) This is not a high priority for Rich, so this needs to be worked on by a UKCA developer.	Update - Jan 25 AJH - Lowered priority of this work. Original notes LFRic currently uses the UM version of ukca_um_legacy_mod which is dependent on a large number of modules (e.g. STASH system modules) that are not required. In principle, this could be fixed by an LFRic version of ukca_um_legacy_mo. Rich has been looking at an alternative method using compiler directives (see Ticket ukca:#123 Purge usage of copydiag and friends for non-UM use cases). [Essential: Remaining dependencies on a large number of unused modules (e.g. STASH etc.) are impacting on efficiency of LFRic build.]	Medium	NA	???
25		RADAER optimisation emulation	Alan Hewitt (main) Ben Johnson	AJH highlighted that there have been some discussions about this - a few people interested in this (James Manners, AJ, Ben Johnson, AJH). AJH and others to look at emulation of RADAER	Normal	Normal	TBC
26	UM:#2689	FastJX-GLOMAP coupling	TBC Ticket owned by Fiona	UMvn10.8 branches exist - see ticket Note: FastJX rates also need updating - potential for code as well as input-file changes	NA	Normal	TBC maybe ukesm3 maybe IPCC AR7
27		Cloud-J	Owner TBC	Notes	???	???	TBC
28		UKCA STASHmaster PP-codes	Luke Abraham	Verification system makes some use of existing PP-codes. New items should have a PP-code of 0 and verification team will use STASH items for these if required.	???	NA	TBC
29		GLOMAP-CLIM API refresh	Alan J Hewitt	Cuurently parked. Extend API to include GLOMAP-clim within the core UKCA code (or alternatively provide UKCA routines required by GLOMAP-clim in the UKCA API). Required to avoid the need to by-pass the API.	Normal	NA	TBC
30	None	N48L85 configuration	TBC	notes	NA	???	TBC
31		ACTIVATE optimisation	TBC	A quick win here is to reduce nwbins in namelist ( see um:#4740 ). Parked for now. There does not seem to be resource to look at this at present. This could be tested for UKESM-fast. Another potential change would be to alter the call to only when there are clouds	???	NA	TBC
32	ukca:#27 ukca:#92	Handling of solar calculations and time inputs	TBC	Covered by unassigned tickets UKCA:#27 and UKCA:#92. Ticket #27 addresses inconsistencies between calculations for offline oxidants and isoprene and the potential for inconsistency with photolysis as well as avoiding the need for a 'previous_time' input. [Desirable on scientific and technical grounds: Current redundancy in required inputs adds unnecessary complexity for parent models and there is significant scope for efficiency improvements and internal simplification.]	Normal	NA	TBC
33		Replace/remove UM legacy code in UKCA (where possible)	TBC	Includes UM humidity calculations, grid-specific aspects of volcanic SO2 and mass calculations, surface area calculation for heterogeneous chemistry on CLASSIC aerosols. Previously included ozone column calculation which is also used by photolysis but this is now provided as a parent callback routine to act on post chemistry ozone (ukca:#165). [Desirable on technical grounds: Current code is over complex, by-passes the API (thus restricting UKCA development) and is difficult to maintain.]	Normal	NA	TBC
34	several	Removal of redundant code	ALL	Parked whilst GA7.0 is a protected suite.	Normal	NA	NA
35		Support for UM hybrid resolution model and provision of internal variables via the API	Mark Stringer (main)	Required to avoid the need to by-pass the API. Currently a low priority task. Code is protected by rose-stem so do not need to fix this urgently. Nov 23 - MS has little time to work on this at present. An edge case for API usage.	Low	NA	None

Table of previously completed priority tasks

Description	Owner	Status	Comments
UKCA API	John Hemmings (main)	UKCA API work is progressing (AJH). Radaer API on hold until after GA7 port to LFRic. Functionality of RADAER in LFRic currently works without an API although it will be preferable to update this in future. Main task complete	Main task complete Some follow up tasks have been created
UKCA and NAME coupling	John Hemmings (main)	ukca:#25 was lodged for UM13.2 Now working with RAQ. PMJ has been able to build UKCA as a shared library for NAME use.	Work complete on UKCA side Science testing started with NAME
Separare UKCA repository	Luke Abraham	Separate UKCA trac environment set-up on MOSRS here, will hold UKCA code on completion of current ExCALIBUR project. Aiming for vn12.3. UKCA removed from UM at UMvn13.0 - see UKCA repo Closed
Non-API LFRic work, e.g. Porting aerosol science functionality etc.	Alan J Hewitt	Porting calculation of CDNC from GLOMAP Climatology aerosols complete. I will pass required elements of ukca_radaer to ukca_radaer_band_average (um:#5957) Porting calculation of fields in radaer_band_average to be passed to Socrates underway(lfric:#2488) Includes RADAER, need to use imode_setup=8 RADAER now callable from LFRic, can do GA-type comparisons from LFRic to UM. JH to put UKCA into LFRic soon - working in an SCM configuration (GLOMAP with offox) - needs more testing. A lot more work to do, possibly until end of 2021. AJH has tickets going in for 12.1 that would cover all of the basic GA7 but with climatological aerosol. JH tickets will do the prognostic alternative. JH currently has an LFRic-SCM configuration with prognostic aerosol. JH now has UKCA working in proto-GAL7 (LFRic) config. Needs to couple with convection & plume scavenging. Convection & plume scavenging has been done. AJH - some of this has been done or is in progress.
Dry deposition and Jules tiles	Garry	If Jules adds extra tiles for UKESM2 we may need to hard code options in dry deposition (like in um:#1761) Aerosol Dry Deposition will be considered in the JULES context once the gas-phase changes have been committed. Completed for UM13.1
Fixes for chemistry rates and ASAD (bugs #101 & #103)	Luke Abraham	#101 still open, #103 completed (necessary for GC5 ticket GMED:#551) Issues on EX1A. Closed - see also UKESM:#841 for UKCA package ticket
Rc fixes for water (bug #104)	UKESM Core Team	Lodged at UMvn11.7 in ticket UM:#5167
CH4 deposition fixes (bug #109)	Gerd Folberth	Closed
Solar cycle in photolysis	Luke Abraham	Some code lodged at UMvn10.9 (UM:#2587) but needs bugfixing. This work has stalled in ticket UM:#4828 (bug #110). UM:#4828 lodged for UMvn12.2. See also UKESM:#841 for UKCA package ticket
Deposition updates from CSIRO		Code lodged in UM:#4020 (UMvn11.4, oceanic dry deposition) and UM:#5713 (UMvn11.8, Lightning NOx updates). See also UKESM:#841 for UKCA package ticket
Sol/Insol	Anthony Jones (main)	ukca:#14 was lodged for UM13.2
Stratospheric Ozone improvements	James Keeble/Luke Abraham	Work lodged and in package testing for UKESM2
Full domain i-first UKCA	Alan Hewitt	Closed	Code lodged in ukca:#170 and lfric_apps:#68
Ugrid ANTS - regrid aerosol climatology files	Alan Hewitt Paul Earnshaw	Closed	The method for producing these files was already developed. Alan will need to check files for correctness, but this work is otherwise complete.