TRACMASS v2022.01

TRACMASS is a Lagrangian trajectory code for ocean and atmospheric general circulation models. The code makes it possible to estimate water paths, Lagrangian stream functions (barotropic, overturning, etc.), exchange times, etc. TRACMASS has been used in studies of the global ocean circulation, of sea circulation in the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and in coastal regions.

The code is written in FORTRAN 90 with modules and runs on UNIX platforms such as MAC OS X and Linux.

TRACMASS has been set up to run with velocities integrated with models such as NEMO or IFS-ECMWF, of satellite datasets such as AVISO.

For more information check our website: https://www.tracmass.org/.

Documentation

You can find documentation about TRACMASS here

Quickstart

1. Download TRACMASS

git clone https://github.com/TRACMASS/Tracmass.git

2. Enter the TRACMASS directory

cd Tracmass

3. Modify the Makefile to fit your system.

You will need to set ARCH - name of your system, (i.e. tetralith) - which is used to set the Fortran compiler and flags.

You also need to configure how TRACMASS should find the netCDF libraries, if at all, using NETCDFLIBS.

For most HPC systems, we recommend setting netCDF libraries using either the NETCDFLIBS = automatic-44 option for netCDF version >4.4 or NETCDFLIBS = automatic otherwise.

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3.1 Using Conda:

The simplest way to get started with TRACMASS on a local machine or HPC system is to use a conda virtual environment.

To do this:

• Create a new virtual environment using miniforge - a minimal installer for Conda and Mamba:

  conda create -n env_tracmass

• Next, install the gfortran and netcdf-fortran libraries required by TRACMASS from the conda-forge open-source package manager.

  conda activate env_tracmass
  
  conda install gfortran netcdf-fortran

• Verify gfortran and netCDF libraries are available.

  which gfortran
  
  nf-config --all

• Update the Makefile ARCH and NETCDFLIBS options.

  # Project and case definition
  ...
  ARCH              = conda
  NETCDFLIBS        = conda
  #=============================

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4. Compile TRACMASS

make

Running the First Test Case

We recommend testing that TRACMASS was properly compiled by letting PROJECT and CASE be "Theoretical" in the Makefile (which is the default).

In this case, TRACMASS will use a simple oscillating velocity field to trace trajectories.

1. Make sure in Makefile both PROJECT and CASE are set to Theoretical.

   # Project and case definition
   PROJECT	          = Theoretical
   CASE              = Theoretical
   ...

2. Recompile TRACMASS

   make clean
   make

3. Run TRACMASS

   ./runtracmass

Download Example Data

You can find example input data for testing the code here: https://stockholmuniversity.box.com/s/pyc29hjumxuvf0nf84ym5zs0vrnqbswr

This includes data from NEMO, IFS and AVISO. Before doing any analysis we recommend to download some of the test data and make sure TRACMASS is working properly.

For example, in order to set up TRACMASS to run trajectories using NEMO model output data, you will need to change PROJECT and CASE to NEMO, and then re-compile the code.

make clean
make

./runtracmass

Perform Your Own Analysis

If you wish to run another case or a very specific case of the above models, you will need create your own project in the projects directory.

For example, to run with your own IFS data, you will need to modify the namelist_IFS.in namelist in the projects/IFS/ directory to suit your needs.

Previous Versions of TRACMASS

Previous versions of TRACMASS are stored in the following repository:

https://github.com/TRACMASS/Tracmass_previous.git

The following features from older versions are not available yet in this version:

• Subgrid turbulence parameterisations