ROMS (Regional Ocean Modeling System)
Tutorial

Enrique Curchitser(1) & Ufuk Turuncoglu(2,3)

(1) Rutgers University, Department of Environmental Sciences, US
(2) Istanbul Technical University, Informatics Institute, Turkey
(3) ICTP, Earth System Physics Section, Italy

28 Sept. – 1 Oct. 2015: School on Ocean Climate Modelling: Physical and Biogeochemical Dynamics
of Semi- Enclosed Seas (smr2711)
 Outline
•  Introduction to ROMS
–  Requirements
–  Key issues about grid generation
–  Initial and boundary conditions
•  Installation
•  Test case (UPWELLING)
 Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS)
•  It is a three-dimensional, free-surface, terrain-following (via s-
coordinates) numerical model.
•  Assumptions:
–  Boussinesq (density is nearly constant)
•  It simplifies equation of motion
•  water is incompressible
•  velocities in the ocean is small compared with speed of sound
•  vertical scale of motion is also small
–  Hydrostatic (neglect of inertial accelerations in the vertical
momentum eq.)
•  It simplifies vertical component of the velocity
•  Strict hydrostatic balance in all scales
•  Wide range of applications
•  More info: http://www.people.arsc.edu/~kate/ROMS/manual_2012.pdf
 Atmospheric 
Grid Generation   Requirements Forcing  

Initial and Boundary

Condition  

T, S, U, V, ZETA  

Heat +
Simulation   Momentum
Fluxes or
Atm. Cond.  

Model input
parameters  
 Grid Generation
•  Realistic and/or analytic
•  ROMS uses s-coordinate in
vertical and it follows bathymetry
•  The distribution of vertical layers 
can be controlled using set of 
parameters
•  In horizontal, curvilinear grid is
supported
•  Grid Generation Tools:
–  MATLAB: SeaGrid, Gridgen, EasyGrid …
–  Python: octant, pyroms, …
–  Analytic grid can be also defined using Fortran
•  The grid generation plays crucial role in the stability
 Grid Generation
Hsmooth-Hraw  
•  Bathymetry smoothing:

•  Grid stiffness ratios:

" Δh % " h −h % Beckman & Haidvogel Number (1993)
rxo = max $ ' = max $ i i−1 '
# 2h & # hi + hi−1 ) & Reduced by smoothing < 0.25

"z −z % Haney Number (1991)

i, j,k i−1, j,k + zi, j,k−1 − zi−1, j,k−1
rx1 = max $$ '' Reduced by smoothing and vert. coordinate
# zi, j,k + zi−1, j,k − zi, j,k−1 − zi−1, j,k−1 & modification < 6.0

•  Tool: Matlab smoothing toolbox (LP_Bathymetry)

http://drobilica.irb.hr/~mathieu/Bathymetry/
 Initial and Lateral Boundary Conditions
•  Realistic and/or analytic
•  Requires (3d for IC and 2d for Lateral BC)
–  salinity,
–  temperature
–  current (u and v)
–  sea surface height fields.
•  The input files are defined in netCDF format
•  The input files should be recreated when the horizontal and
vertical grid changed!
–  There is no need to change files for atmospheric forcing if
horizontal grid is same
•  Atmospheric forcing
–  Momentum, heat and freshwater fluxes or atmospheric conditions
 Installation
•  The code is distributed using SVN repository
•  Users need to register to access the code
https://www.myroms.org/index.php?page=RomsCode
•  Get code
svn checkout https://www.myroms.org/svn/src/trunk MyDir
•  Directories

OS/Architecture/compiler specific files  

ROMS source code, files related with test cases  

 Installation
•  Directories under ROMS/

ROMS build script, build.sh  

Input parameter files for tests, *.in and varinfo.dat  

Files to create analytic initial and boundary conditions  
Option files for test cases, CPP options  

Source files for non-linear model  

Source files for utility modules  

 Installation
•  Main steps:
–  Modify build environment (i.e. Compilers/Linux-ifort.mk)
•  External libraries (netCDF, HDF etc.)
•  MPI compiler (OpenMPI, IntelMPI, …)
•  OpenMP ?
–  Copy build script from ROMS/Bin/build.sh to installation directory
–  Create or copy application specific header file
•  CPP options for model customization
–  Edit build.sh
•  Case identifier (i.e. UPWELLING)
•  Specify source directory
•  MPI, compiler definitions
–  Run build script to install model, ./build.sh
 Installation
•  Application specific options are defined by CPP definitions
•  CPP definitions act as a filter to create customized model
source code
•  CPP options include:
–  Momentum equations (mixing, advection, bottom friction, …)
–  Tracer equations (mixing, advection, relaxation, rivers …)
–  Pressure gradient algorithm
–  Atmospheric boundary conditions (i.e. bulk flux alg.)
–  Analytical field definitions (grid, initial conditions etc.)
–  Vertical mixing parameterizations (GLS, MY, LMD, …)
–  Open boundary conditions
–  Biological (i.e. NPZD, EcoSim) + Sediment Transport models
–  Sea-ice …
 Test case
•  Wind-Driven Upwelling/Downwelling over a Periodic Channel

Initial Condition
•  Temperature stratification
•  No motion (u, v and w = 0)

Boundary Condition
•  Uniform wind blowing from east to west at 0.1 Pa
 S-coordinate to depth
•  ROMS_TOOLS is an alternative to MATLAB toolbox
•  It is written in NCL
•  Usage
–  Get script
git clone https://github.com/uturuncoglu/ROMS_TOOLS.git
–  Edit ROMS_convert_s2z.ncl and specify desired depth levels and
list of variables
–  Run script using ncl ROMS_convert_s2z.ncl command
–  Warnings written at the beginning can be ignored. It is about
defining dimensions that are already defined in the result file
 Questions!
Contact:
Personal web: http://faculty.itu.edu.tr/turuncogl1/
E-mail: [email protected]