WRF Licensing

[christinaholt]

I see that the WRFv3.9 release has a public domain license that says:

NCAR and UCAR make no proprietary
claims, either statutory or otherwise, to this version and
release of WRF and consider WRF to be in the public domain for
use by any person or entity for any purpose without any fee or
charge.

I am concerned with the licenses of some individual pieces...especially in dyn_em/module_sfs_driver.F

! LICENSING REQUIREMENTS
! Any use, reproduction, modification, or distribution of this software or documentation
! for commercial purposes requires a license from Lawrence Livermore National Security,
! LLC. Contact: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Industrial Partnerships Office,
! P.O. Box 808, L-795, Livermore, CA 94551

Is this license superseded by the WRF public domain license for commercial use? Is that specifically stated somewhere within the code?

 

[kwerner]

Hi,
At this time, we assume that you are likely correct - that this license (for module_sfs_driver.F) is superseded by the WRF public domain license for commercial use, but we aren't certain about that. This code was put into the model many years ago, and the intent of the clause stated by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is unclear (and unfortunately those who were working with WRF code at that time do not remember addressing this). We plan to contact the LLNL group so that we can provide a definitive response to you, but this could take a couple of weeks. Are you able to wait, or do you need a response sooner?

 

[freenote]

I want to use the WRF with my own additional parameterization for
commercial use. Could you let me know what I need to consider for this WRF
commercial uses?

Thank you in advance.

Sincerely,

 

[kwerner]

@freenote,
The WRF code is open-source and free to use in any way you see fit. There are no procedures you will need to consider for your purpose.