= GENERAL NEWS =

[[PageOutline]] 
General information for all users about recent changes linked to the ORCHIDEE code and environment as well as the project. 

Between the regular news follow also [wiki:GroupActivities/Meetings/Technical weekly meeting reports] [[BR]]
and [wiki:SourceCode#Mainchangesonthetrunk main changes done on the trunk]. 

* Next ORCHIDEE-DEV meeting the 8 March: meeting on the Fair use policy


== News February 2016 ==
=== Main changes in the trunk since July 2015 ===
 * Change of Bare soil albedo calculation: a new formulation based on MODIS derived background albedo can be used with the keyword ALB_BG_MODIS, see ticket #227, r3171
 * Implemented use of XIOS 2.0 as option, see ticket #202, r3096
 * New multi-layer snow scheme with Implicit coupling of "soil-snow-atmosphere", see ticket #203, r3059  => NOTE: a BUG was introduced with the implicit coupling and it will be corrected soon...
 * humcste initialized depending on soil depth, see ticket #183, r3041
 * Added fractions for snow cover, see ticket #203, r3020
 * Bug correction in water conservation, see ticket #188, r2927
 * Soil thermal properties were changed, see ticket #194, r2922
 * New vertical soil discretization with a unique discretization for the hydrologie and the thermic, see ticket #190, r2917
 * Corrections for restartability 1day+1day=2days. This is now ok in all tested cases, see ticket #143, r2868

=== New model features to come soon in the trunk ===
 * Nitrogen cycle has been completed in a branch and is currently under validation
 * BVOC : Emission fluxes for BVOCs and NOx, vegetation fraction, see ticket #230

=== Reported problems in the current trunk === 
 * A bug for the new snow scheme was introduced in revision [3059]. The snow does not melt properly, see ticket #229
 * Soil hydric stress with the 11-layer model: bug in the trunk; corrected by Nicolas Vuichard in a specific version (see ticket #228); will be comitted to the trunk soon.
 
=== Reference simulations done with the trunk ===
The latest reference simulations done with the trunk are using revision 3171 and 3109. See here :  wiki:ReferenceSimulations

=== XIOS is now the default ===
XIOS 1.0 is now replacing IOIPSL for writing of output files (history files). This is the case in the trunk and the libIGCM configurations (ORCHIDEE_trunk, LMDZOR_v6). 
 * If you need to install the trunk without XIOS, read more here : wiki:Documentation/UserGuide/DeactivateXIOS
 * Add variables using XIOS, read here wiki:Documentation/UserGuide/XIOSaddVar
 * XIOS is compiling by default at curie, ada, obelix and ciclad. At ciclad only a small modification is needed, read more in [http://forge.ipsl.jussieu.fr/igcmg_doc/wiki/DocBenvDipslAciclad#Compilingatciclad igmcg_doc]. At other machines, read here about installation : https://forge.ipsl.jussieu.fr/ioserver
 * The use of XIOS 2.O is implemented as an option in the trunk using the same features as XIOS1 (only writing output files). In a near future, XIOS2 will be used also to read and interpolate files, and to read and write restart files instead of IOIPSL.
 
== Archived information ==

 * [wiki:Documentation/News/2015July News July 2015]