WACCM-X High-Resolution Nature Run

A new version of NSF NCAR CESM Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with thermosphere/ionosphere extension (WACCM-X) has been developed. The main feature of this version is the species-dependent spectral element (SE) dynamical core solved on a cubed sphere grid, eliminating the polar singularity and enabling simulations at high-resolutions. Molecular viscosity and diffusion in the horizontal direction are also included. The Conservative semi-Lagrangian Multi-Tracer Transport Scheme (CSLAM) is employed for the species transport. An efficient regridding scheme based on the Earth System Modeling Framework is used to map fields between the physics mesh and geomagnetic grid. The WACCM-X high-resolution (NE120) Nature Run refers to the simulation with ~25 km horizontal resolution and 0.1 scale height vertical resolution resolutions for a full year.