WRF-GC

About WRF-GC

WRF-GC (Lin et al., 2020; Feng et al., 2021) is a new, online coupled model based on the the regional meteorology model, WRF, and the chemical transport model, GEOS-Chem. The coupling structure is designed to be easy to use, massively parallel, and ready for the future. In particular, either one of the two parent models to be updated independently. This allows WRF-GC to take full advantage of the updates in WRF and GEOS-Chem, respectively, and stay state-of-the-science.

WRF-GC is open-source and free to use.

Architectural overview of the WRF-GC model (v2.0). The WRF-GC two-way Coupler (all parts shown in red) includes interfaces to the two parent models, as well as the state conversion and state management modules. The parent models (shown in grey) are standard codes downloaded from their sources, without any modifications. From Feng et al. (2021).

The development of WRF-GC was led by Haipeng LIN, Xu FENG, and Tzung-May FU. In addition, the GEOS-Chem Support Team provided valuable assistance in updating the GEOS-Chem code to accommodate the coupling.

Version history

Version 2.0

(updated June 24, 2021) WRF-GC v2.0 (Feng et al. (2021)) is an online two-way coupling of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) meteorological model (v3.9.1.1) and the GEOS-Chem chemical model (v12.7.2). WRF-GC v2.0 is built on the modular framework of WRF-GC v1.0 and further includes aerosol-radiation interactions (ARI) and aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI) based on bulk aerosol mass and composition, as well as the capability to nest multiple domains for high-resolution simulations.

Major features of WRF-GC v2.0:

• Updated compatibility with the latest release of GEOS-Chem v12.8.1
• Aerosol-radiation interactions and aerosol-cloud interactions that can be turned on/off
• Nested-domain functionality
• Online lightning NOx emissions
• Restart run functionality
• Bug fixes from v1.0

Version 1.0

The first version of WRF-GC (v1.0) (Lin et al., 2020) was released on January 4, 2019. A more mature and stable version (v 1.0) was released in Fall 2019.

(updated Feb 26, 2021) We recommend that all users upgrade to WRF-GC v2.0.

A few notes about v1.0:

• The coupling between WRF and GEOS-Chem is one-way only, i.e., there is no feedback from GEOS-Chem to WRF.
• The nested domain capability of WRF is not yet supported.

WRF-GC reference

1. Lin, H., Feng, X., Fu, T.-M.*, Tian, H., Ma, Y., Zhang, L., Jacob, D.J., Yantosca, R.M., Sulprizio, M.P., Lundgren, E.W., Zhuang, J., Zhang, Q., Lu, X., Zhang, L., Shen, L., Guo, J., Eastham, S.D., Keller, C.A. (2020), WRF-GC (v1.0): online coupling of WRF (v3.9.1.1) and GEOS-Chem (v12.2.1) for regional atmospheric chemistry modeling – Part 1: Description of the one-way model, Geosci. Model Dev., doi:10.5194/gmd-13-3241-2020, Full text
2. Feng, X., Lin, H., Fu, T.-M.*, Sulprizio, M. P., Zhuang, J., Jacob, D. J., Tian, H., Ma, Y., Zhang, L., Wang, X., Chen, Q., Han, Z. (2021), WRF-GC (v2.0): online two-way coupling of WRF (v3.9.1.1) and GEOS-Chem (v12.7.2) for modeling regional atmospheric chemistry-meteorology interactions, Geosci. Model. Dev., 14， 3741-3768， doi：10.5194/gmd-14-3741-2021. Full text
3. Feng, X., Lin, H., and Fu, T.-M.* (2020), WRF-GC: online two-way coupling of WRF and GEOS-Chem for regional atmospheric chemistry modeling, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-5165, doi:10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-5165. Link.

Publications using WRF-GC

1. Xu, X., Feng, X., Lin, H., Zhang, P., Huang, S., Song, Z., Peng, Y., Fu, T.-M., Zhang, Y. (2022), Modeling the high-mercury wet deposition in the southeastern US with WRF-GC-Hg v1.0, Geoscientific Model Development, 15, 3845–3859, doi:10.5194/gmd-15-3845-2022.Full text.
2. Hu, S., Wang, D., Wu, J., Zhou, L., Feng, X., Fu, T.-M., Yang, X., Ziegler, A. D., Zeng, Z. (2021), Aerosol presence reduces the diurnal temperature range: an interval when the COVID-19 pandemic reduced aerosols revealing the effect on climate, Environmental Science: Atmospheres, doi:10.1039/D1EA00021G. Full text
3. Zhang, R., Zhang, Y., Lin, H., Feng, X., Fu, T.-M., Wang, Y. (2020), NOx emission reduction and recovery during COVID-19 in East China, Atmosphere, 11(4), 433, doi:10.3390/atmos11040433. Full text

Using WRF-GC

Obtaining the code

WRF-GC can be downloaded from GitHub. We also encourage you to subscribe to the WRF-GC google group (WRF-GC@googlegroups.com) to stay updated with the model status.

Getting started

WRF-GC User Guide This is the updated version of WRF-GC User Guide.

Model description paper of WRF-GC (v2.0). Published in Geoscientific Model Development

Starter kit for use in the WRF-GC model clinic This is a package of an example simulation using WRF-GC to be used with the tutorial above.

Model description paper of WRF-GC (v1.0). Published in Geoscientific Model Development

Overview of the WRF-GC as of May 2019

Help with WRF-GC

WRF-GC google group

The WRF-GC google group (WRF-GC@googlegroups.com) is a place for WRF-GC users to ask questions and exchange experiences about using the WRF-GC model.

To join the google group, please sign in your google account and search for WRF-GC on [groups.google.com Google Groups] and click 'Ask to join'. Your group membership should be processed by the group managers shortly.

Contact us

If you encounter any problems running WRF-GC or have suggestions for model improvements, please email us (fuzm AT sustech DOT edu DOT cn).