MPAS planet radius and mesh

[Lixiang]

Hi~

I am trying to use MPAS on exoplanet studies. I have changed all planet radius parameters in the source codes. But I have a question about the mesh file downloaded from the MPAS-A website.
As I understand, to generate these meshes, a planet radius is required. Does it mean that I must generate new mesh files every time I use MPAS on another planet?

Any hints would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[mgduda]

The meshes that are provided on the MPAS-A mesh download page are all defined on a unit-radius sphere (i.e., a radius of 1.0 m), and it's up to the initialization code to scale all distances and areas by the desired sphere (or planet) radius. For example, for real-data simulations, distances and areas are scaled in the init_atm_static subroutine. For exoplanet simulations, you could simply scale by a different radius.

 

[Lixiang]

The meshes that are provided on the MPAS-A mesh download page are all defined on a unit-radius sphere (i.e., a radius of 1.0 m), and it's up to the initialization code to scale all distances and areas by the desired sphere (or planet) radius. For example, for real-data simulations, distances and areas are scaled in the init_atm_static subroutine. For exoplanet simulations, you could simply scale by a different radius.

That's good news! Thank you for the information.