This month we shine the spotlight on a new way to engage with MITgcm: The Julia interface. 

Reporting by Helen Hill for MITgcm

Julia is a high-level, high-performance programming language designed for technical computing. It combines the ease of use of languages like Python with the speed of languages like C, making it ideal for numerical and scientific computing. Julia’s syntax is straightforward and expressive, and it boasts a rich ecosystem of packages for various applications, including machine learning, data science, and computational biology.

A new paper by long-time MITgcm developer Gael Forget introduces MITgcm.jl a Julia-based interface for the MIT General Circulation Model (MITgcm). This interface allows users to set up, build, and launch MITgcm simulations without the need to know shell scripting or manually edit text files. It supports various input and output formats used by MITgcm and integrates with the ClimateModels.jl interface, enabling interactive use from Jupyter and Pluto notebooks. The paper appears in the Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS.)

Climate modeling often relies on numerical models written in compiled languages like Fortran or C. MITgcm, a Fortran-based model, provides detailed insights into ocean dynamics and powers the ECCO ocean reanalysis. Despite the emergence of new models in languages like C++ and Julia, Fortran-based models remain crucial due to their accumulated expertise and continuous integration. However, they can be challenging to operate due to technical hurdles. MITgcm.jl addresses these issues by offering a new user-friendly interface in Julia.

MITgcm.jl allows users to interact with MITgcm from Jupyter and Pluto notebooks. It simplifies deploying and running MITgcm on various platforms, including laptops, HPC clusters, and the cloud. The MITgcm.jl julia package can read and process MITgcm outputs, enabling common analyses and accurate computations of ocean heat transport and global warming. Users can modify MITgcm’s run-time parameters in Julia and export them to standard formats. The documentation of MITgcm.jl includes a suite of examples and tutorials demonstrating its capabilities. Users can define configurations, run simulations, and modify parameters interactively. The package supports visualizing model results without writing additional code, making it accessible to users unfamiliar with Fortran or shell scripting.

MITgcm.jl bridges MITgcm with Julia’s tools for machine learning, AI, differential equations, and visualization. This integration allows for advanced analyses, such as estimating seawater pathways and simulating marine ecosystems using agent-based models.

To take MITgcm.jl for a spin visit https://github.com/gaelforget/MITgcm.jl

Learn more about Julia here Story image: Examples of MITgcm output created, read, processed, plotted, and analyzed via MITgcm.jl in Julia (credit: Forget)

To find out more about this work​ contact Gaël

 

This Month’s Featured Publication

Other New Publications last month

Amadori, M., Irani Rahaghi, A., Bouffard, D., and Toffolon, M. (2024), Using automatic calibration to improve the physics behind complex numerical models: An example from a 3D lake model using Delft3d (v6.02.10) and DYNO-PODS (v1.0), Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., doi: 10.5194/gmd-2024-118

Amitai, Y. et al (2024), Seiche‐induced fish kills in the Sea of Galilee—a possible explanation for biblical miracles? Water Resources Research, doi: 10.1029/2024WR037894

Inakonda Veera Ganga Bhavani et al (2024), Quantifying the Role of Silicate and Dissolved Nitrogen in Co-Limiting the Primary and Secondary Productivity of the Bay of Bengal Euphotic Zone, JGR Oceans, doi: 10.1029/2024JC021009

Josef I. Bisits, Jan D. Zika, and Dafydd Gwyn Evans (2024), Does cabbeling shape the thermohaline structure of high-latitude oceans? Journal of Physical Oceanography, doi: 10.1175/JPO-D-24-0061.1

Chakravorty, S., Czaja, A., Parfitt, R., & Dewar, W. K. (2024), Tropospheric response to Gulf Stream intrinsic variability: A model ensemble approach, Geophysical Research Letters, doi: 10.1029/2023GL107726

Conklin, Emily E. (2024), Source to Sink: Modeling Marine Population Connectivity Across Scales in the Main Hawaiian Islands, University of Hawai’i at Manoa ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 31336851

Junjie Deng, Lili Lei, Zhe-Min Tan, and Yi Zhang (2024), Scale-dependent inflation algorithms for ensemble Kalman filters, Monthly Weather Review, doi: 10.1175/MWR-D-24-0068.1

Dinh, A. et al (2024), Modeling ocean heat transport to the grounding lines of Pine Island, Thwaites, Smith, and Kohler glaciers, West Antarctica, Geophysical Research Letters, doi: 10.1029/2024GL110078

Wei Duan, Xuhua Cheng, Yifei Zhou, Jonathan Gula (2024), Characteristics of Submesoscale Compensated/Reinforced Fronts in the Northern Bay of Bengal, JGR Oceans, doi: 10.1029/2024JC021204

Eisenman, I., Basinski‐Ferris, A., Beer, E., & Zanna, L. (2024), The sensitivity of the spatial pattern of sea level changes to the depth of Antarctic meltwater fluxes, Geophysical Research Letters, doi: 10.1029/2024GL110633

Fay, A. R., Carroll, D., McKinley, G. A., Menemenlis, D., & Zhang, H. (2024), Scale‐dependent drivers of air‐sea CO2 flux variability. Geophysical Research Letters, doi: 10.1029/2024GL111911

Laur Ferris, Donglai Gong, John Klinck (2024), Topographic forcing of submesoscale instability in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, arXiv: 2410.10721

Gudmundsson, Simon (2024), Hydrodynamic modelling of E. coli along the urban coast of Helsingborg, Masters Thesis Uppsala University

Daquan Guo et al (2024), Seasonal Variation and Fundamental Characteristics of Baroclinic Tides in the Arabian Gulf, Frontiers of Marine Science, doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1475593

Alexander Hayward et al (2024), Climate driven shifts in Antarctic phytoplankton
groups: Implications of widespread diatom decline, via Researchgate, doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5188031/v1

Ibrahim Hoteit, Eric Chassignet, and Mike Bell (2024), Improving Accuracy and providing Uncertainty Estimations: Ensemble Methodologies for Ocean Forecasting, State of the Planet, doi: 10.5194/sp-2024-10

Yi-Chia Hsin, Tzu-Ling Chiang, and Huang-Hsiung Hsu (2024), Projected North Equatorial Current/Countercurrent Towards an El Niño-Like Condition in the Western Pacific under Moderate and Worst-case CO2 Emission Scenarios, Journal of Climate, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-24-0035.1

Daniel Holmberg et al (2024), Regional Ocean Forecasting with Hierarchical Graph Neural Networks, arXiv: 2410.11807

Huang, H. et al (2024), Negative surface chlorophyll concentration anomalies in the southeast Arabian Sea during summer in 2015 and 2019, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, doi: 10.1029/2024JC021154

Bob Jacobs et al (2024), Spectroscopically resolved partial phase curve of the rapid heating and cooling of the highly-eccentric Hot Jupiter HAT-P-2b with WFC3, arXiv: 2410.11643

Jiang, H., Xin, X., Xu, H. et al (2024), Three-layer circulation in the world deepest hadal trench, Nat Commun, doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-53370-7

S. Kiefer et al (2024), Under the magnifying glass: A combined 3D model applied to cloudy warm Saturn type exoplanets around M-dwarfs, arXiv: 2410.17716

Benoit S. Lecavalier (2024), A history-matching analysis of Antarctic Ice Sheet evolution since the last interglacial, Doctoral Dissertation, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Lee, D., Lee, D.‐H., Joo, H., Jang, H. K., Park, S., Kim, Y., et al (2024), Long‐term variability of phytoplankton primary production in the Ulleung Basin, East Sea/ Japan Sea using ocean color remote sensing, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 129, doi: 10.1029/2024JC020898

Zhiyuan Li and Alexey V. Fedorov (2024), A slower North Equatorial Countercurrent but faster Equatorial Undercurrent in a warming climate, Journal of Climate, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-23-0738.1

Liu, C., An, SI., Kim, SK. et al (2024), Synchronous decadal climate variability in the tropical Central Pacific and tropical South Atlantic, npj Clim Atmos Sci , doi: 10.1038/s41612-024-00806-y

Lopez, Rigoberto Moncada (2024), Sea Ice Discrete Element Modeling: Melt and Fracture of Floes and Sheets, California Institute of Technology ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Alok Kumar Mishra, Babita Jangir, Ehud Strobach (2024), Influence of mesoscale sea-surface temperature structures on the Mediterranean cyclone Ianos in convection-permitting simulations: Contributions of surface warming and cold wakes, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, doi: 10.1002/qj.4862

Tatsu Monkman and Malte F. Jansen (2024), The effect of Southern Ocean topography on the global MOC and abyssal water mass distribution, Journal of Physical Oceanography, doi: 10.1175/JPO-D-23-0253.1

Stefan Pelletier et al (2024), CRIRES+ and ESPRESSO reveal an atmosphere enriched in volatiles relative to refractories on the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-121b, arXiv: 2410.18183

Schiller, A., Josey, S. A., Siddorn, J., and Hoteit, I. (2024), Atmospheric Forcing as a driver for Ocean Forecasting, State Planet Discuss., doi: 10.5194/sp-2024-13

Chinglen Meetei Tensubam, Alexander V. Babanin, Mihir Kumar Dash (2024), Fingerprints of El Nino ˜ Southern Oscillation on global and regional oceanic chlorophyll-a timeseries (1997–2022), Science of the Total Environment, doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176893

Takaya Uchida, Quentin Jamet, Andrew C. Poje, Nico Wienders, Luolin Sun, William K. Dewar (2024), Dynamics and thermodynamics of the Boussinesq North Atlantic eddy kinetic energy spectral budget, ESS Open Archive, doi: 10.22541/essoar.172969549.95386966/v1

Qingyue Wang, Changming Dong, Jihai Dong (2024), Seasonality of Submesoscale Vertical Heat Transport Modulated by Oceanic Mesoscale Eddies in the Kuroshio Extension, JGR Oceans, doi: 10.1029/2024JC020939

Bao, Weiyang (2024), Glacier-Ocean Interactions in Shallow-Silled Fjords, University of Delaware ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  2024. 31483089

Zelin Xu et al (2024), A Fast AI Surrogate for Coastal Ocean, Circulation Models, arXiv: 2410.14952

Yang, X., & Cessi, P. (2024), The Bering Strait throughflow component of the global mass, heat and freshwater transport, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, doi: 10.1029/2024JC021463

Linfang Zhang, Marco Yu-Ting Leung, Fengchao Yao, Guangli Zhang, and Dongxiao Wang (2024), Response of the Indian Ocean Meridional Overturning Circulation to the Subtropical Indian Ocean Dipole, Journal of Climate, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-23-0643.1

Zhang, X., Li, F., Jing, Z. et al (2024), Detecting marine heatwaves below the sea surface globally using dynamics-guided statistical learning, Commun Earth Environ, doi: 10.1038/s43247-024-01769-x

Do you have news about research using MITgcm? We are looking for contributions to these pages. If you have an interesting MITgcm project (ocean, atmosphere, sea-ice, physics, biology or otherwise) that you want to tell people about, get in touch. To make a post, contact Helen