The vertical transport scheme in MPAS is the same as in WRF, except that for the third-order scheme there is a coefficient that multiplies the dissipative term in the scheme. The default setting for that coefficient (config_coef_3rd_order) is 0.25 in MPAS; setting its value to 1 gives the 3rd order scheme in WRF, and setting it to zero gives the WRF 4th-order scheme. In contrast to WRF, there is no option for 2nd-order or 5th-order vertical transport in MPAS. Also note that MPAS does not apply additional filtering to the scalars outside of the dissipation in the transport scheme and the monotonic limiter, while WRF applies any chosen horizontal filtering to all variables.
