mgduda
commented
6 years ago @skamaroc I've updated the description attributes for these fields as we discussed. The only change that I made was to describe tend_ni and tend_nr as "... number concentration times dry air density divided by d(zeta)/dz" (rather than dry air mass). I'm wondering whether we should specify that these are mass number concentrations rather than volume number concentrations. What do you think?
This merge corrects the "units" and "description" attributes for scalar tendencies in the atmosphere core's Registry.xml file.
The "units" attribute for scalar tendencies (e.g., tend_qv, tend_qc, etc.) in the Registry.xml file incorrectly identified these fields as being specified in kg kg^{-1} s^{-1}, when in fact the units are kg m^{-3} s^{-1}. Further, these tendencies are divided by d(zeta)/dz, so that the meters in the units refer to meters in the computational grid rather than the physical grid.
Note that current physics schemes in MPAS return scalar tendencies in kg kg^{-1} s^{-1}, and these are converted to units of kg m^{-3} s^{-1} in the physics_get_tend routine by multiplication by rho_zz.
This commit only addresses the previously incorrect units and description attributes in the Registry.xml file; there is no impact on model results.