2. Getting started

2.1. Requirements

Unix-like system (e.g., Linux).

Fortran compiler.
So far, the GNU GCC (gfortran) and Intel Fortran (ifort) compilers are supported. If you wish to use a different compiler, please contact help@sicopolis.net.

SICOPOLIS writes output in NetCDF format (plus some ASCII). An installation of NetCDF version 3.6.x or newer is therefore required. For installation tips, see Dependencies/NetCDF.

For the shallow-shelf/shelfy-stream solver, the Library of Iterative Solvers for Linear Systems (Lis, version 1.4.43 or newer) is required. For installation tips, see Dependencies/Lis.

2.2. Download

Clone the Git repository (recommended)

The Git repository of SICOPOLIS is kindly hosted by the GitLab system of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven, Germany. Front page: https://gitlab.awi.de/sicopolis/sicopolis/.

Cloning the latest develop revision:

git clone --branch develop
    https://gitlab.awi.de/sicopolis/sicopolis.git

(Cloning with SSH instead of HTTPS is also available. See the above GitLab front page link for details.)

You should then have a new directory sicopolis that contains the entire program package.

Download an archive

Go to https://gitlab.awi.de/sicopolis/sicopolis/-/tree/develop, click on the download symbol and choose the desired format (zip, tar.gz, tar.bz2, tar).

Tagged versions of SICOPOLIS are also available from Zenodo.

2.3. Initial configuration

  1. Change to the new directory sicopolis and execute the bash script copy_templates.sh:

    ./copy_templates.sh

    It copies several scripts from runs/templates to runs and the run-specs header files from runs/headers/templates to runs/headers. This allows modifying the scripts and headers suitably if needed, while the original files are always stored in the respective templates subdirectories for reference.

  2. Execute the bash script get_input_files.sh:

    ./get_input_files.sh

It downloads the input data files for the several model domains (Antarctica, Greenland, etc.) These files are stored on a server (Zenodo archive) and needed for various inputs such as topography, precipitation, geothermal heat flux, etc. The script can be configured before execution if the input files are only needed for selected domains (default is downloading everything). To do so, open it with a text editor and change the flag variables according to the instructions in the script.

  1. Locate the file sico_configs.sh in the directory runs, and open it with a text editor.

    Set the flags LIS_FLAG, OPENMP_FLAG and LARGE_DATA_FLAG according to your needs.

    Default is "true"/"true"/"false", which works for all test simulations included in the SICOPOLIS package. LIS_FLAG and OPENMP_FLAG can be set to "false" for simulations with pure shallow-ice dynamics. However, "true" is required for simulations with shallow-shelf dynamics (for floating ice) or hybrid shallow-ice–shelfy-stream dynamics (for grounded ice). For high-resolution simulations (e.g., Greenland/5 km or Antarctica/8 km), LARGE_DATA_FLAG must be set to "true".

    Set NETCDFHOME to the correct path of your NetCDF installation.

    If LIS_FLAG="true", set LISHOME to the correct path of your Lis installation.

    Depending on your system, some additional settings might have to be added in sico_configs.sh (module load commands for dynamic loading etc.).

  2. Locate the file sico_environment.sh in the directory runs, open it with a text editor, and replace the SICO_INSTITUTION="Default" entry by the name of your institution (max. 256 characters).

2.4. Directory structure

Main directory

Initialization scripts copy_templates.sh, get_input_files.sh.

License file.

Directory runs

Configuration scripts sico_configs.sh, sico_environment.sh.

Shell script (bash) sico.sh for running a single simulation.

Shell scripts (bash) multi_sico_1.sh and multi_sico_2.sh for running multiple simulations by repeated calls of sico.sh.

Subdirectory headers

Run-specs header files sico_specs_<run_name>.h (see below) for the simulations to be carried out with SICOPOLIS.

By default, it contains a number of test simulations.

Directory src

Main program file sicopolis.F90.

Subdirectory subroutines/general: general subroutines, for any modelled domain.

Subdirectory subroutines/ant: subroutines specific for the Antarctic ice sheet.

Subdirectory subroutines/grl: subroutines specific for the Greenland ice sheet.

Subdirectory subroutines/eismint: subroutines specific for the EISMINT simplified geometry experiments.

Accordingly subdirectories subroutines/asf, nhem, scand, tibet, nmars and smars for Austfonna, the northern hemisphere, Scandinavia, Tibet and the north and south polar caps of Mars, respectively.

Subdirectory subroutines/tapenade: AD-specific subroutines and files.

Subdirectory subroutines/xyz: For creating new domains.

Directory sico_in

Input data files for SICOPOLIS.

Subdirectory general: general input files, for any modelled domain.

Subdirectory ant: input files specific for the Antarctic ice sheet.

Subdirectory grl: input files specific for the Greenland ice sheet.

Subdirectory eismint: input files specific for the EISMINT simplified geometry experiments.

Accordingly subdirectories asf, nhem, scand, tibet, nmars and smars for Austfonna, the northern hemisphere, Scandinavia, Tibet and the north and south polar caps of Mars, respectively.

Subdirectory xyz: For creating new domains.

NOTE: These subdirectories also contain README files that describe the input data and provide the corresponding references.

Directory sico_out

Directory into which output files of SICOPOLIS simulations are written by default.

Directory docs

Documentation for SICOPOLIS.

Directory tools

Some useful tools and a shell script (tools.sh) to execute them (see “Plotting and tools”).

Directory test_ad

AD-specific utilities and CI testing framework.

2.5. Run-specs header files

Each simulation (run) must be specified by a run-specs header file (or “header” for short). If the name of the simulation is supposed to be <run_name>, then the name of the header must be sico_specs_<run_name>.h. SICOPOLIS actually extracts the name of the simulation from the name of the header according to this pattern.

A header consists of a pretty large number of preprocessor directives of the form

#define PARAMETER value

These allow specifying many aspects of a simulation and are documented in the headers themselves. See also the “Modelling choices” section.

2.6. Physical-parameter files

In these files, a number of physical parameters (densities, acceleration due to gravity, heat conductivity, specific heat, latent heat, etc.) are defined. SICOPOLIS expects them in the respective directory for the input files (sico_in/ant for Antarctica, sico_in/grl for Greenland, etc.) If the name of the file is phys_para_xxx.dat, it must be specified in the run-specs header file as

#define PHYS_PARA_FILE 'phys_para_xxx.dat'

The physical-parameter files can be provided in either ASCII or NetCDF format. The file type is recognized automatically by the extension (*.nc for NetCDF, otherwise ASCII is assumed).

2.7. How to run a simulation

For example, to run the EISMINT Phase 2 Simplified Geometry Experiment A (Payne et al. [29]), named v5_emtp2sge25_expA, use the script sico.sh as follows:

(./sico.sh -m v5_emtp2sge25_expA) >out_001.dat 2>&1

(from directory runs, bash required). Accordingly for any other simulations.

For further options, try ./sico.sh -h.

WARNING: Do not use out_<run_name>.dat for the redirected output of sico.sh. This name is reserved for the runtime output of SICOPOLIS itself. (Both are very useful in case of compilation or runtime errors!)

Alternatively, if you prefer to run all EISMINT, Antarctica and Greenland simulations consecutively, execute the script multi_sico_1.sh:

(./multi_sico_1.sh) >out_multi_100.dat 2>&1 &

For further options, try ./multi_sico_1.sh -h.

Approximate computing times are listed in the “Test simulations” section.

2.8. Output files

Output files are written by default to the directory sico_out/<run_name> (this can be changed with the -d /path/to/output/directory option). Four types are produced:

<run_name>.log:

ASCII file that lists the main specifications of simulation <run_name>.

<run_name>.ser, <run_name>_ser.nc:

Time-series files (ASCII, NetCDF) that contain scalar variables:

  • Time, t

  • Surface temperature anomaly, D_Ts, or glacial index, glac_ind (forcing)

  • Sea level, z_sl (forcing)

  • Total ice volume, V

  • Volume of grounded ice, V_g

  • Volume of floating ice, V_f

  • Total ice area, A

  • Area of grounded ice, A_g

  • Area of floating ice, A_f

  • Ice volume above flotation in sea level equivalent, V_sle

  • Volume of temperate ice, V_t

  • Area of temperate-based grounded ice, A_t

  • Maximum ice thickness, H_max

  • Maximum thickness of temperate ice, H_t_max

  • Maximum surface elevation, zs_max

  • Maximum surface speed, vs_max

  • Maximum basal temperature (relative to pmp), Tbh_max

  • (Some more in the NetCDF file, try ncdump -h <run_name>_ser.nc)

<run_name>.core, <run_name>_core.nc:

Time-series files (ASCII, NetCDF) that contain for selected locations xxx:

  • Time, t

  • Surface temperature anomaly, D_Ts, or glacial index, glac_ind (forcing)

  • Sea level, z_sl (forcing)

  • Thickness, H_xxx

  • Surface velocity, v_xxx

  • Basal temperature, T_xxx

  • (Some more in the NetCDF file, try ncdump -h <run_name>_core.nc)

For the Greenland ice sheet, these data are written for seven locations:
GRIP (xxx=GR), GISP2 (xxx=G2), Dye 3 (xxx=D3), Camp Century (xxx=CC), NorthGRIP (xxx=NG), NEEM (xxx=NE), EastGRIP (xxx=EG).
For the Antarctic ice sheet, these data are written for six locations:
Vostok (xxx=Vo), Dome A (xxx=DA), Dome C (xxx=DC), Dome F (xxx=DF), Kohnen (xxx=Ko), Byrd (xxx=By).
<run_name>0001.nc, <run_name>0002.nc, …:

Complete set of fields (topography, velocity, temperature etc., written in NetCDF format) for selected time slices defined in the run-specs header file.

For example, simulation v5_emtp2sge25_expA produces three files v5_emtp2sge25_expA0001.nc, v5_emtp2sge25_expA0002.nc and v5_emtp2sge25_expA0003.nc, which correspond to the times \(t=5\,\mathrm{ka}\), \(50\,\mathrm{ka}\) and \(200\,\mathrm{ka}\), respectively.