2 The Big Idea

This section should help you understand key aspects of the NUOPC Layer design that are critical for writing the code to make your model NUOPC Layer compliant. The NUOPC Layer includes four kinds of generic components, each with a different purpose in a coupled application. One kind of generic component is the NUOPC Model, a component that wraps a model code (such as an atmosphere, ocean, or ice model) such that it exposes the set of interfaces defined by the NUOPC specification. You will work primarily with the NUOPC Model generic component in order to make your model NUOPC Layer compliant.

This documentation focuses primarily on the NUOPC Model Component. However, you should be aware that there are four kinds of generic components implemented in the NUOPC Layer:

Model

Wraps a model code, such as an atmosphere, ocean, or ice model

Connector

Handles standard data transformations (e.g., redistribution or regridding) between two components in a single direction

Mediator

Contains custom coupling code (e.g., flux calculations, averaging) between Models; unlike the Connector, a Mediator can handle data from multiple Models with data flowing in multiple ways

Driver

Coordinates execution of Models, Mediators, and Connectors

2.1 Specializing Generic Components

A key design idea behind NUOPC is that a lot of code (and therefore behavior) is provided for you. This code is provided via the four generic components included with the NUOPC library, plus some additional utility routines. The NUOPC Model generic component implements most of the initialization and run behavior for you, but you have to supply some key parts of the implementation that are specific to your model. The process of supplying your custom code that completes the generic NUOPC Model component is called specialization. In other words, you are specializing the generic component to work for your particular model. Any parts of the code that you do not specialize are inherited from the generic component.

Those familiar with object-oriented programming will recognize the ideas of specialization and inheritance. Since the NUOPC Layer is written in Fortran 90, which has limited support for object-oriented programming, your specialization code is provided in Fortran subroutines which are registered with NUOPC using function pointers. NUOPC makes callbacks into your code when required to execute the specialization code.

2.2 NUOPC Model Cap

A NUOPC Model cap is a Fortran module that contains your code that specializes the generic NUOPC Model component for your particular model. The NUOPC Model cap serves as the interface to your model when it's used in NUOPC-based systems. The term “cap” is used because it is a small software layer that sits on top of your model, making calls into it. Typically, your model code will not make calls back into the cap. Sometimes we say just “cap” or “NUOPC cap” because it's quicker than saying “NUOPC Model cap.”

2.3 How Much of My Code Do I Need to Change?

The amount of code that your need to change depends on how your model is structured and the degree to which it is already an independent component. The NUOPC cap itself does not usually require changes to your model's internals. Instead, the cap primarily acts as a separate software layer, and your model otherwise operates in its usual way.

However, as detailed in the section 3.2, if your model is currently embedded as a subsystem in a larger application and cannot be built independently, you must first take steps to modularize the code and remove dependencies to other models before beginning the NUOPC implementation.

The creation of a NUOPC cap does not mean that your model must always be run as a NUOPC component. Existing models can retain their native modes of operation, and running your model in NUOPC mode becomes a configuration option.

The NUOPC cap becomes a new locus of control for your model when your model is run in NUOPC mode. In other words, it will make calls into your model code to initialize your model and step it forward in time. One result of this is that the very top level main program of your model may not be used at all when your model is run in NUOPC mode. This is because all models participating in a coupled NUOPC application will be controlled by a separate generic component: the NUOPC Driver.

Putting control into a separate driver enables synchronization of all models participating in a coupled application, allows NUOPC to control when each model component runs (and for how long), and allows NUOPC to intercept and inject variables produced and required by your model at key parts during execution. Once you have a working NUOPC cap (you only need to implement it once), you have an interoperable component that can be used in systems with other NUOPC components.

2.4 How Do I Know it Works?

Validating your NUOPC cap is extremely important. The idea is to ensure that your model's current behavior is reproduced exactly as before, but this time with control flowing from the cap. This is why we encourage you to generate some baseline output by running your model in its “normal” way before doing any implementation. You will validate your cap by ensuring that when it controls your model, the same output is reproduced. In most cases the output matches bit-for-bit so a simple file-based comparison will be sufficient.

We also provide tools to help you check whether your cap is NUOPC-compliant. NUOPC Compliance can be evaluated using a combination of two tools, the Component Explorer and the Compliance Checker, included in the ESMF/NUOPC software distribution. More information is provided in sections 3.8 and 3.10.