Skip to content

Documentation update for switching GCHP default resolution to c90 #557

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Draft
mcdon1718-h wants to merge 5 commits into
base: docs/dev
Choose a base branch
from
Draft

Documentation update for switching GCHP default resolution to c90 #557

Show file tree
Hide file tree
Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
5 commits
Select commit Hold shift + click to select a range
c4cbd33
Documentation updates for changing default resolution from c24 to c90.
mcdon1718-h Jun 22, 2026
c6e30b6
Merge branch 'docs/dev' of github.com:mcdon1718-h/GCHP into docs/dev
mcdon1718-h Jun 22, 2026
688e23d
Adding low-resolution transport citation to documentation as part of …
mcdon1718-h Jun 22, 2026
7c8da5c
Updates to text explanation for horizontal grids and getting started …
mcdon1718-h Jul 8, 2026
3571ba0
Updated language in horizontal grids supplemental guide for default-c…
mcdon1718-h Aug 6, 2026
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
9 changes: 9 additions & 0 deletions docs/source/getting-started/quick-start.rst
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -218,6 +218,15 @@ You therefore need to run it to actually apply the settings:
$ vim setCommonRunSettings.sh # edit simulation settings here
$ ./setCommonRunSettings.sh # applies the updated settings

.. attention::
When creating a GCHP run directory, the default grid resolution in
configuration file setCommonRunSettings.sh is set to C90. C90 has a
resolution of approximately 110km globally, similar to the average
resolution of a 1x1 degree lat-lon grid, and is recommended for most
scientific outputs. See :ref:`horizontal-grids` for more information
about different GCHP grid resolutions and notes on selecting the
appropriate resolution for your runs.

Comment thread
mcdon1718-h marked this conversation as resolved.
Simulation start date is set in :file:`cap_restart`. Run directories
come with this file filled in based on date of the initial restart
file in subdirectory :file:`Restarts`. You can change the start date
Expand Down
13 changes: 13 additions & 0 deletions docs/source/supplement/horizontal-grids.rst
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -69,6 +69,19 @@ The table below shows some common cubed-sphere configurations.
- 223,948,800
- 0.125° x 0.15625°

As of GCHP 14.8.0, the default grid resolution is C90. Users are encouraged to
think carefully about their run's needs and available resources when choosing a
grid resolution. Higher-resolution simulations provide a more faithful
representation of transport :cite:`Strahan_Polansky._2006`, as the model can better
resolve nonlinearities and heterogeneity, albeit at greater computational expense.
Current GCHP applications commonly span within C48 to C360, and lower resolutions are
generally recommended for testing and debugging over scientific output. Determing a
"sufficient" model resolution is highly dependent on your exact research question.

Switching from C24/30/48 to C90 or higher will require some changes to your run
configuration, as the computational cost of running GCHP increases with grid
resolution.

See our :ref:`stretched-grid` chapter for information about how
you can stretch one of the grid faces to achieve extra-fine resolution
over a target location.
Expand Down