NEMO Developer's Committee meeting

The meeting took place by videoconference on Wed. 8 January 2020.

Participants:

• Chairperson: Mike Bell (also Met-Office Consortium expert)
• External experts: David Marshall, Olivier Aumont, Frédéric Dupont
• Consortium Experts : Rachid Benshila (CNRS), Julein Le Sommer (CNRS), Jérôme Chanut (MOI)
• NEMO Officers: Sébastien Masson (CNRS), Dorotea Iovino (CMCC), Andrew Coward(NOC), Pierre Mathiot (Met-Office), Guillaume Samson (MOI)
• Working groups leaders: Mike Bell (Kernel and HPC), Jérôme Chanut (AGRIF), Sea-ice (Martin Vancopennolle and Ed Bockley), TOP (O. Aumont & Tomas Lovato), Sébastien Masson (Air-sea interactions)
• NEMO Project manager (Claire Lévy)
• Permanent Invitees System Team members and Developers: Stefania Ciliberti, Emanuela Clementi, Oriol Tinto, Gurvan Madec, Amy Young

Absentees: Joel Hirschi (Consortium expert for NOC), George Nurser (Consortium expert for NOC), Gilles Garric (Consortium expert for MOI), Helene Hewitt(Consortium expert for Met-Office), Pier Guiseppe Fogli (Consortium expert for CMCC), Momme Buttenschön (Consortium expert for CMCC),Dan Lea (leader of data interface WG), and the following External experts: Paolo Oddo, Joanna Staneva, Jean-Marc Molines,Laurent Brodeau

Discuss draft Terms of Reference for Scientific Advisory Committee

Mike Bell invited comments on the proposed Terms of Reference (ToR) drafted by elaborated by the NDC subgroup​ for the NEMO Scientific Advisory Committee that will be distinct from the Developers Committee (subject to Steering Committee approval).
Questions arose on why biogeochemistry is declared out of scope? Consensus was that the interface to biogeochemistry (i.e. TOP) is firmly within scope. The PISCES component itself is not used by all projects using NEMO, but is part of NEMO scope as stated in the Consortium Agreement. Olivier Aumont raises the point that there are some important interactions of biogeochemistry with other components of the system for developments.
Data Assimilation remains out of scope of NEMO and its SAC for now but perhaps the ToR should include a mechanism for reviewing what is in and out of scope in case needs change.
Similarly, other components such as stochastic closures may increase in importance and the ToRs? should provide some flexibility or risk excluding new areas.
Being overly proscriptive on the length and number of terms members can serve was considered unnecessary. A limited number of terms is a good idea to ensure fresh input but it may be better to offer more shorter terms. Varying lengths of appointment is recommended, especially for initial appointments, so that not too many members change at the same future stage.
Action: NDC subgroup to revise ToRs? accordingly before sending it to Steering Committee endorsement.

Summary of progress in 2019

Claire Lévy presents a summary of NEMO development progress in 2019. Highlights include:

• Significant preparatory work for the Kernel evolution towards a 2-level time-stepping scheme.
• Work on vertical interpolation with AGRIF to allow AGRIF nests to use different vertical coordinates.
• Implementation of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer model and work on Air-sea fluxes and bulk formulae
• Reworking of tidal harmonics and tidal forcing options

In all 39 development branches were created in 2019.
The system team successfully closed at least as many tickets as were opened.
6 papers were published in the NEMO GMD special edition
Developments remain on track for a 4.2 release end 2020/early 2021

Lessons learned should mean a realistic workplan for 2020

Comments on the NEMO 2020 work plan: Working Group leaders then other members of the committee

Update from the verification and validation group (Mike; short item)

Update on physical processes (Julien; short item)

How to keep NEMO live 10 years from now (see second attachment)

Messages to Steering Committee (Mike; short item)