GEOS-Chem model development priorities

On this page we list the current priorities for GEOS-Chem development. This list was compiled by the user Working Groups at the last International GEOS-Chem Meeting (IGC5) in May 2011 and has been continuously updated since based on code readiness and input from the Working Groups and the Steering Committee.

List of priorities as of May 2012

Items "Awaiting release" will be part of the next version release of GEOS-Chem and are actively being incorporated into the standard model and benchmarked. Other items are in different stages of readiness and will be included in future versions of the model.

Awaiting release

Item	Author(s)	Status
Improved acetone simulation	Emily Fischer (Harvard)	Approved 14 Dec 2011 (v9-01-03b); awaiting release
Complete shift of biogenic VOC emissions from GEIA to MEGAN; retire GEIA	Dylan Millet (U. Minnesota)	Approved 14 Dec 2011 (v9-01-03b); awaiting release
OVOC's dry deposition	Jingqiu Mao (NOAA/GFDL)	Approved 19 Dec 2011 (v9-01-03c); awaiting release
Improved sea salt emission & deposition	Lyatt Jaeglé (U. Washington)	Approved 12 Jan 2012 (v9-01-03d); awaiting release
Dust submicron size distribution for optics	David Ridley (Colo. State)	Approved 12 Jan 2012 (v9-01-03d); awaiting release
Improved snow scavenging and washout parameterization	Qiaoqiao Wang (Harvard)	Approved 02 Feb 2012 (v9-01-03e); awaiting release
PARANOX ship plume emissions	Geert Vinken (Eindhoven)	Approved 17 Feb 2012 (v9-01-03f); awaiting release
Hg(II) gas-aerosol partitioning	Helen Amos (Harvard)	Approved 09 Mar 2012 (v9-01-03h); awaiting release
Nested-grid CO2 simulation	Yuxuan Wang (Tsinghua U.)	Approved 09 Mar 2012 (v9-01-03h); awaiting release
Historical emission inventories of SO2, NOx, BC, and POA	Eric Leibensperger (MIT)	Approved 09 Mar 2012 (v9-01-03h); awaiting release
Replace RETRO C2H6 emissions with emissions from the offline C2H6 simulation	Yaping Xiao (UNH)	Approved 26 Mar 2012 (v9-01-03i); awaiting release
Replace existing regridding routines with the MAP_A2A regridding package	Matt Cooper (Dalhousie)	Approved 27 Apr 2012 (v9-01-03k); awaiting release
Daily and 3-hourly GFED3 biomass emissions	Prasad Kasibhatla (Duke)	Approved 18 May 2012 (v9-01-03l); awaiting release
Tropospheric bromine chemistry	Justin Parrella (Harvard)	Approved 06 Jun 2012 (v9-01-03m); awaiting release
Satellite-based NOx emission trends	Lok Lamsal (NASA GSFC)	Approved 08 Jun 2012 (v9-01-03n); awaiting release
Stratospheric P and k (monthly climatological)	Lee Murray (Harvard)	Code is ready (awaiting delivery to GCST); slated for v9-01-03o

--Melissa Payer 10:44, 7 June 2012 (EDT)

Ready to go in

Item	Author(s)	Status
Expanded SOA	Havala Pye (EPA/ORD)	Delivered to GCST, awaiting implementation
Inorganic chemistry updates	Mat Evans (York)	Delivered to GCST, awaiting implementation
New soil NOx emission module	Rynda Hudman (UC Berkeley) Neil Moore (Dalhousie)	Bram Maasakkers (Eindhoven) is visiting Harvard for Summer 2012 in order to integrate the new soil NOx emissions into the standard GEOS-Chem code. This will be added into the standard code in the release that immediately follows v9-01-03.
Methyl peroxy nitrate (MPN) chemistry	Ellie Browne (UC Berkeley)	Delivered to GCST, awaiting implementation
Acid uptake on dust aerosols	T. Duncan Fairlie (NASA/LARC)	Delivered to GCST, awaiting implementation
Cloudwater pH for sulfate formation	Becky Alexander (U. Washington)	Delivered to GCST, awaiting implementation
EPA/NEI2005 Hg emissions for US	Lyatt Jaeglé (U. Washington)	Delivered to GCST, awaiting implementation
Streets future Hg emissions	Bess Corbitt (Harvard)	Delivered to GCST, awaiting implementation
Nested-grid Hg simulation	Lyatt Jaeglé (U. Washington)	Delivered to GCST, awaiting implementation
Updated Hg(0) oxidation kinetics	Bess Corbitt (Harvard) Justin Parrella (Harvard)	Delivered to GCST, awaiting implementation
Capability to use GEOS-Chem Br/BrO fields in Hg simulation	Bess Corbitt (Harvard) Justin Parrella (Harvard)	Delivered to GCST, awaiting implementation
Correction for GEOS-5 PBL heights	Sajeev Philip (Dalhousie)	Delivered to GCST, awaiting implementation
Updated Canadian NH3 inventory	Wai-Ho Lo (Dalhousie)	Delivered to GCST, awaiting implementation
Tagged sulfate and nitrate simulation	Becky Alexander (U. Washington)	Code is ready
Update to EDGAR 4 anthropogenic emissions	Qiang Zhang (Tsinghua)	Code is ready
Improved HO2 uptake by aerosol	Jingqiu Mao (NASA/GFDL)	Code is ready
Fix RO2+HO2 rate constant	Fabien Paulot (Harvard)	globchem.dat is ready

--Melissa Payer 11:51, 21 May 2012 (EDT)
--Bob Y. 13:55, 22 May 2012 (EDT)

Almost there (< 6 months)

Item	Author(s)	Status
FAA/AEDT aircraft emissions inventory	Steven Barrett et al (MIT)	Code delivered to GCST, on hold
Longwave & shortwave RF codes for chemistry-climate	Fangqun Yu (SUNY Albany)	Fangqun Yu wrote: We developed and tested the two components in v8.3.1-2. So far we have not got a chance yet to move them into v9.1.2. In the last couple of weeks we began to look into v9.1.2, focusing on re-evaluation of APM driven by MERRA data. The 3-hr MERRA data will enable us to get rid of met data interpretation used in APM. After We validate the APM in v9.1.2, we will begin to integrate RF codes and APM capability for nested grid into v9.1.2.
APM capability for nested grid	Fangqun Yu (SUNY Albany)	See above message from Fangqun Yu
Interannual lightning	Lee Murray (Harvard)
Primary marine OA emissions	Kateryna Lapina (CSU)
Implement GISS advection scheme for GISS-driven applications	GEOS-Chem Support Team
Updated dicarbonyl simulation	May Fu (Peking U.)
Satellite diagnostic for XCO2	Liang Feng (U. Edinburgh)
Improve temporal resolution of anthropogenic CO2 sources	Ray Nassar (Environment Canada)
Improvements to isoprene chemistry, standardization of Paulot Scheme	Fabien Paulot (Harvard) Eloise Marais (Harvard) Jingqiu Mao (NASA/GFDL) Mat Evans (York)
RO2+NO3 chemistry updates	Mat Evans (York)
Inhibition of N2O5 hydrolysis by aerosol nitrate	Lin Zhang (Harvard)
Improved ROOH formation and chemistry	Fabien Paulot (Harvard) Mat Evans (York)
Unified emissions pre-processor	Qiang Zhang (Tsinghua)	Qiang Zhang wrote: By now we have done EDGAR 4, and now we are tackling the VOC speciation issue. Then the next step is to incorporate several regional inventory datasets. My expertise is anthropogenic emission inventory development, so my efforts focus on how to include state-of-art research inventories in the GC model. I hope we can merge our efforts [with your efforts toward the Grid-independent Emissions Component] into one framework.
Update Asian emissions	Qiang Zhang (Tsinghua)
Improved operator splitting	Mauricio Santillana (Harvard)	Towards this end, we have added the Centralized chemistry time step option into GEOS-Chem v9-01-02. This makes sure that the tracer concentrations being sent into the chemistry solver are more representative of the center of the chemistry timestep, and thus are more consistent with when the photolysis gets computed. Mauricio is writing up his results for a paper to be submitted to JGR.
Nested-grid model at 0.25° x 0.3125° resolution	Yuxuan Wang (Tsinghua)	Work on this is currently proceeding. We are investigating how best to create two nested domains in order to accommodate the SEAC4RS mission support (which would help avoid memory limitations).
Replace CASA CO2 biosphere climatology with year-specific fluxes	Ray Nassar (Environment Canada) Dylan Jones (U. Toronto)	Ray Nassar wrote: SiB Fluxes are available to replace the old CASA fluxes, courtesy of Janina Messerschmidt et al. New CASA fluxes would also be good, such that the user can select options in the input.geos file.
Improved dust simulation in nested-grid model	Rokjin Park (Seoul Nat'l Univ.)	Rokjin Park wrote: We are evaluating the performance of new dust scheme over East Asia
CESM/CAM5 interface for chemistry-climate	Rokjin Park (Seoul Nat'l Univ.) Joshua Fu (U. Tennessee)	Rokjin Park wrote: CESM/CAM5 - GEOS-Chem linking tool has been developed and will be tested soon

--Bob Y. 14:02, 17 May 2012 (EDT)
--Melissa Payer 11:51, 21 May 2012 (EDT)

Over the horizon (6-12 months)

Item	Author(s)	Status
Working with GEOS-5.7.2	GEOS-Chem Support Team	Initial changes already added into v9-01-03; validation is ongoing
High-resolution emissions for above nested-grid model	Yuxuan Wang (Tsinghua)
Update HCN simulation	Qian Li (U. Edinburgh) Dylan Jones (U. Toronto)
Improved planeflight diagnostic	Mat Evans (York)
Chemistry diagnostics	Mat Evans (York)
3-D VOC source for tagged CO simulations	Dylan Jones (U. Toronto)
Move to 2° x 2.5° versions of GISS GCM ModelE and Model3	Loretta Mickley (Harvard)	For more information, please see the GISS Model E Memo by (Lee Murray and Loretta Mickley).
Implement IPCC AR5 scenarios	Loretta Mickley (Harvard)
Improve ocean CO2 flux	Ray Nassar (Environment Canada) Kevin Bowman (JPL)
Standardize the two-film parameterization of air-sea exchange	Hg and POPs Working Group
Model engineering - improving KPP diagnostics	Mat Evans (York) Barron Henderson (UNC) Mike Long (Harvard)
CO2 inhibition effect for isoprene emission	Loretta Mickley (Harvard)

--Bob Y. 13:45, 17 May 2012 (EDT)
--Melissa Payer 11:51, 21 May 2012 (EDT)

Longer term (> 12 months)

Item	Author(s)	Status
Grid-independent GEOS-Chem	GEOS-Chem Support Team	We plan on delivering the Chemistry Component to NASA/GMAO by June 1, 2012, which marks the end of Year 1 of the project. Development of the Emissions Component will be the focus of Year 2 of the project. Much of this work will be done by Christoph Keller (Harvard). Our goal is to completely replace GEOS-Chem's legacy emissions routines with a modern emissions package that can be easily interfaced to an external GCM.
Read emission data at native resolution and regrid on the fly	GEOS-Chem Support Team	This has more or less been achieved with the addition of the these packages: MAP_A2A regridding algorithm (v9-01-03k) New Olson land map module (v9-01-03i) New MODIS LAI module (v9-01-03j) Also note: the new Grid-Independent Emissions Component will also perform this functionality by taking advantage of the regridding features of the Earth System Model Framework. This is an ongoing development project.
Improved atmospheric-ocean-land coupling of Hg simulation	Hg and POPs Working Group
Primary biological aerosol particles (PBAP's)	Colette Heald (Colo. State)	Only to be implemented if users identified
Unified radiative forcing module for GEOS-Chem	Aerosols Working Group	Under discussion/investigation
Effective meteorolgical fields for dust and sea-salt emissions	GEOS-Chem Support Team
Dust simulation expansion; tagged simulation, oxalate, Fe, P	Matthew Johnson (NCSU)	Matthew Johnson wrote: I am presently working on publishing this work and this is my last step before graduating with PhD. I will have little time to work on getting this code ready for full implementation. This is due to the fact I have my code in an older version of the model and the newer versions of GEOS-Chem do not even use the same chemical solver and aerosol thermodynamics solver. So it would be alot of work to get the model ready right now.
Benchmark for aerosol deposition	Colette Heald (Colo. State)	TBD

--Bob Y. 14:07, 17 May 2012 (EDT)
--Melissa Payer 10:29, 7 June 2012 (EDT)