Run WRF using 360 day calendar?

[Chris Thomas]

Is it possible to run WRF using a 360 day calendar? Some GCMs use such a calendar and I want to know if we can use WRF to downscale such models.
Chris

 

[kwerner]

Hi Chris,
We have a colleague who was working on this application a few years ago. I'm attaching what they gave to us. Their group developed the code, based on the WRFV3.8.1 code. If you are using newer code, you’ll have to update the files to the new code. Note that there is also a known issue with a jump/discontinuity in solar position at the end of the year, simply because the 12*30 = 360 days don't add up to 365 or 366 days, so that may be something else you’ll need to play around with.

There are modifications to both the WPS and WRF programs, and I believe you need a compile flag
-DD360_CALENDAR
in WPS and WRF, (similar to the no-leap calendar). You'll modify the configure.wps and configure.wrf files to add the above to the "ARCH_LOCAL" macro.

We have not tested this in our group, and unfortunately that is all the information we have. I hope it’s helpful!