e3sm_diags — E3SM Diagnostics

The e3sm_diags task runs E3SM Diagnostics to produce a wide variety of atmospheric, land, and river diagnostic plots. It depends on the climo — Climatology Files and/or ts — Time Series Files tasks for its input files.

For a complete list of available E3SM Diags parameters, see the E3SM Diags documentation.

For a table of which diagnostic sets require which parameters, see Confluence.

Diagnostic sets

The sets parameter controls which diagnostic sets are run. All 20 available sets are:

aerosol_aeronet, aerosol_budget, annual_cycle_zonal_mean, area_mean_time_series, cosp_histogram, diurnal_cycle, enso_diags, lat_lon, lat_lon_land, meridional_mean_2d, mp_partition, polar, precip_pdf, qbo, streamflow, tc_analysis, tropical_subseasonal, zonal_mean_2d, zonal_mean_2d_stratosphere, zonal_mean_xy

Parameters

These 35 parameters are specific to the e3sm_diags task.

General parameters

There are 12 general parameters:

Parameter	Required	Default	Description
backend	No	"mpl"	Plotting backend.
cfg	No	""	Path to an additional E3SM Diags configuration file.
keep_mvm_case_name_in_fig	No	True	Include case name in model-vs-model output paths.
multiprocessing	No	True	Use multiprocessing.
num_workers	No	24	Number of worker processes.
output_format	No	["png"]	Output plot formats.
output_format_subplot	No	[]	Output formats for subplots.
run_type	No	"model_vs_obs"	Comparison type: "model_vs_obs" or "model_vs_model".
sets	No	"lat_lon,zonal_mean_xy,..."	List of diagnostic sets to run.
short_name	No	""	Short name used as test name and label.
swap_test_ref	No	False	Swap test and reference in model-vs-model runs.
tag	No	"model_vs_obs"	Label for the results directory.

Set-specific parameters

There are 23 set-specific parameters.

Overview by set

We will review useful parameters by set. To do this, we will group them by dependency. For more info on dependencies, see Dependencies.

Group	Sets
climo_month_atm	lat_lon, zonal_mean_xy, zonal_mean_2d, polar, cosp_histogram, meridional_mean_2d, annual_cycle_zonal_mean, zonal_mean_2d_stratosphere, aerosol_aeronet, aerosol_budget
climo_month_lnd	lat_lon_land
diurnal	diurnal_cycle
ts_month_atm	enso_diags, qbo, area_mean_time_series, mp_partition
ts_daily_atm	tropical_subseasonal, precip_pdf
streamflow	streamflow
tc	tc_analysis

Cell values: Always = required for both run types; MvO = model_vs_obs only; MvM = model_vs_model only; — = not used. Values marked with * differ across sets within the group (see notes below the table).

Parameter	climo_month_atm	climo_month_lnd	diurnal	ts_month_atm	ts_daily_atm	streamflow	tc
climo_diurnal_frequency	—	—	Always	—	—	—	—
climo_diurnal_subsection	—	—	Always	—	—	—	—
climo_subsection [1]	Always	Always	—	—	—	—	—
dc_obs_climo [3]	—	—	MvO	—	—	—	—
diff_title	—	—	—	MvM	MvM	MvM	MvM
gauges_path [4]	—	—	—	—	—	MvM	—
obs_ts [4]	—	—	—	MvO	MvO	—	—
ref_final_yr *	—	—	—	Always *	MvM	MvM	MvM
ref_name	—	—	—	MvM	MvM	MvM	MvM
ref_start_yr *	—	—	—	Always *	MvM	MvM	MvM
reference_data_path [2]	Always	Always	Always	—	—	—	—
reference_data_path_climo_diurnal [4]	—	—	MvM	—	—	—	—
reference_data_path_tc [4]	—	—	—	—	—	—	MvM
reference_data_path_ts [4]	—	—	—	MvM	—	—	—
reference_data_path_ts_daily [4]	—	—	—	—	MvM	—	—
reference_data_path_ts_rof [4]	—	—	—	—	—	MvM	—
short_ref_name	—	—	—	MvM	MvM	MvM	MvM
streamflow_obs_ts [4]	—	—	—	—	—	MvO	—
tc_obs [4]	—	—	—	—	—	—	MvO
ts_daily_subsection [1]	—	—	—	—	Always	—	—
ts_num_years_ref	—	—	—	MvM	MvM	MvM	—
ts_subsection [1]	—	—	—	Always	—	—	—

[1] (1,2,3)

Falls back to sub → grid if not set.

[2]

Inferred from diagnostics_base_path if not set. In MvM, also used as a base path from which reference_data_path_climo_diurnal and reference_data_path_ts are derived.

[3]

Inferred from reference_data_path if not set (MvO only).

[4] (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9)

Inferred from diagnostics_base_path (or a sibling path) if not set.

Note on * cells (ts_month_atm): within ts_month_atm the four sets do not behave uniformly for ref_start_yr and ref_final_yr:

Parameter	enso_diags	qbo	area_mean_time_series	mp_partition
ref_final_yr	MvM	Always	—	MvM
ref_start_yr	Always	Always	—	MvM

Parameter list

Parameter	Required	Default	Description
climo_diurnal_frequency	No	""	Frequency name for the diurnal cycle [climo] subtask.
climo_diurnal_subsection	No	""	[climo] subtask for diurnal cycle data.
climo_subsection	No	""	Name of the [climo] subtask to depend on.
dc_obs_climo	No	""	Path to observation climatology for the diurnal_cycle set.
diff_title	No	"Model - Observations"	Title for difference plots.
gauges_path	No	""	Path to stream gauge data for streamflow model-vs-model runs.
obs_ts	No	""	Path to observation time-series data for enso_diags, qbo, and area_mean_time_series.
ref_final_yr	No*	""	End year of reference data. Required for qbo and certain model-vs-model sets.
ref_name	No*	""	Reference dataset name. Required for run_type="model_vs_model".
ref_start_yr	No*	""	Start year of reference data. Required for enso_diags, qbo.
reference_data_path	No*	""	Path to reference climatology data. Required for run_type="model_vs_model".
reference_data_path_climo_diurnal	No	""	Reference climatology path for diurnal_cycle MVM runs.
ref_years	No	[""]	Year ranges for reference data in model-vs-model runs.
reference_data_path_tc	No	""	Reference data path for tc_analysis MVM runs.
reference_data_path_ts	No	""	Reference time-series path for enso_diags, qbo, area_mean_time_series.
reference_data_path_ts_daily	No	""	Reference daily time-series path for tropical_subseasonal.
reference_data_path_ts_rof	No	""	Reference river time-series path for streamflow MVM runs.
short_ref_name	No*	""	Short reference name. Required for run_type="model_vs_model".
streamflow_obs_ts	No	""	Path to observation data for streamflow set.
tc_obs	No	""	Path to observation data for tc_analysis set.
ts_daily_subsection	No	""	[ts] subtask for daily data (required for tropical_subseasonal).
ts_num_years_ref	No	5	Year increment for reference time-series data.
ts_subsection	No	""	Name of the [ts] subtask to depend on.

Parameters at the top-level

For top-level parameters, see top-level parameters.

Dependencies

Upstream (what e3sm_diags depends on):

• climo — Climatology Files — Monthly-atm climo: lat_lon, zonal_mean_xy, zonal_mean_2d, polar, cosp_histogram, meridional_mean_2d, annual_cycle_zonal_mean, zonal_mean_2d_stratosphere, aerosol_aeronet, aerosol_budget. Monthly-lnd climo: lat_lon_land. Monthly diurnal-atm climo: diurnal_cycle

• ts — Time Series Files — Monthly-atm ts: enso_diags, qbo, area_mean_time_series, mp_partition. Monthly-rof ts: streamflow. Daily-atm ts: tropical_subseasonal, precip_pdf.

• tc_analysis — Tropical Cyclone Analysis — Required for tc_analysis set.

Downstream (what depends on e3sm_diags):

• None.