Meteorological-Only Mode

ADCIRC can be run in “meteorological-only” mode, which is a quick and convenient way to read in and write out meteorological data files without performing hydrodynamic calculations. In this mode, only routines necessary for meteorological forcing are called - no water levels or velocities are computed.

This mode is achieved by turning off all ocean state-related output and disabling wave coupling. Since only meteorological data is being output, you can set DT equal to the time interval at which you want meteorological data to be output, and then set the meteorological output intervals (NSPOOLM and/or NSPOOLGW) to 1 (i.e., output every time step).

Required Settings

For typical 2D ADCIRC runs, set the following parameters in the fort.15 file:

NOUTE = 0    ! No elevation station output
NOUTV = 0    ! No velocity station output
NOUTGE = 0   ! No global elevation output
NOUTGV = 0   ! No global velocity output
NHSTAR = 0   ! No hotstart output
NHASE = 0    ! No harmonic analysis of elevations at stations
NHASV = 0    ! No harmonic analysis of velocities at stations
NHAGE = 0    ! No harmonic analysis of global elevations
NHAGV = 0    ! No harmonic analysis of global velocities

Additional Settings

For passive scalar transport (IM = 10), also set:

NOUTC = 0    ! No concentration station output
NOUTGC = 0   ! No global concentration output

For barotropic or baroclinic 3D ADCIRC, also set:

I3DSD = 0    ! No 3D density station output
I3DSV = 0    ! No 3D velocity station output
I3DST = 0    ! No 3D temperature station output
I3DGD = 0    ! No 3D global density output
I3DGV = 0    ! No 3D global velocity output
I3DGT = 0    ! No 3D global temperature output

Usage Notes

  1. This mode is useful when you only need to process meteorological forcing data without running the full hydrodynamic model.

  2. The simulation speed can be increased by setting DT equal to your desired meteorological output interval.

  3. Set NSPOOLM and/or NSPOOLGW to 1 to output meteorological data at every time step.

  4. All hydrodynamic calculations are skipped, significantly reducing computational time.