Install SURFEX

SURFEX is now available as open-source.

Below is given an extract of the install procedure with the necessary information to get started with SURFEX in particular if snow on the ground is a target.

Users at Meteo-France

Simple users at Meteo-France do not need to install SURFEX, but rather should point at an existing install:

  • On supercomputers, no need to specify a SURFEX install path, snowtools will use an appropriate one automatically;

  • On Meteo-France PC or server at CEN, please set EXESURFEX environment variable to /rd/cenfic3/cenmod/home/lafaysse/common/SURFEX/surfex-cen-NOMPI-O2-X0/exe;

  • On sxcen, point EXESURFEX to /home/lafaysse/common/SURFEX/surfex-cen-NOMPI-O2-X0/exe.

Note: If you need to work with more recent branch (cen_dev for instance) or other compile options (MPI) have a look to available binaries in the previously pointed SURFEX folder where other compiled binaries are available.

Get the code

If you will develop in SURFEX_CEN, you must clone with SSH. First create a SSH key and associate it to your github account : follow the corresponding section of the github documentation). Then you can get the code with :

git clone git@github.com:UMR-CNRM/SURFEX_CEN.git

If you are a simple user (outside of Meteo-France where pre-compiled binaries are available) you can get the code by running git clone https://github.com/UMR-CNRM/SURFEX_CEN.git.

You will need some additional packages that are provided by the SURFEX project. for the moment, these packages are not publicly available.

  • At Meteo-France/CEN, these files can be copied from /rd/cenfic3/cenmod/home/common/SURFEX_LIB. Copy all the content of this folder into src/LIB folder of the cloned repository.

  • If you are not at CEN, please ask your contact person to transfer these libraries to you and then copy the files into the src/LIB directory.

Please read the infos for developper: https://umr-cnrm.github.io/snowtools-doc/misc/surfex-dev.html

Compile the code

Then you need to compile the code following these instructions.

Note that all the followings commands must be typed in the same terminal. Once finnished, you have to open a new terminal before running any simulation.

Preparation on a Linux PC

Note

If you run on Meteo-France supercomputer, read next section.

If you do not want to compile SURFEX with a MPI-support for parallel runs (recommended for local simulations):

export VER_MPI=NOMPI

Do not type this command in the following cases :

  • you are working on a supercomputer

  • you want to run simulations over more than 4 points and MPI fortran compiler is available on your computer (this is the case in Meteo-France computers)

  • you need to use the interpolator of SAFRAN fields.

In the other cases, adding this line to your $HOME/.bash_profile or equivalent is convenient.

You can then follow the install procedure given below.

Preparation on Méteo France Supercomputers

Note

If you do not run on Meteo-France supercomputer, please skip this section.

To use the last stable release of SURFEX-Crocus, you do not need to compile SURFEX on Belenos ! s2m will automatically use the last available binary.

You first need to load the compilers :

module load intel
module load intelmpi
module load curl

The next step of the configuration depends on your application:

  • For MPI parallel applications (big domains, deterministic application) : let VER_MPI and VER_CDF options to default.

  • For sequential ensemble applications associed with a ParaBlindRun AlgoComponent (one member per core through vortex), and only in this case, export the following variables: export VER_MPI=NOMPI and export VER_CDF=CDF2020.

You will also need to install Install VORTEX.

Common configuration

At this step, it is also possible to modify the optimization level by :

export OPTLEVEL=DEBUG
# or
export OPTLEVEL=O2

Optimization level “O2” is recommended in the general case (significant decrease of running time). In case of bugs or for the first local run after a new development, the optimization level may be changed to “DEBUG” to generate better error messages.

Warning

Long runs must never be run in DEBUG mode.

Initialize environment variables needed for surfex: go into src directory and run

./configure

Then, execute the profile file for this master version of surfex:

source ../conf/profile_surfex-LXgfortran-SFX-V8-1-1-NOMPI-OMP-O2-X0

(or equivalent name depending on compiler, SURFEX version and compilation options, the exact name is provided at the end of the configure execution)

Compilation

Compile the master version of the code: in the src directory and in the same terminal, run

make
make installmaster

Master executables are created in directory exe. If everything goes well until this step, then surfex has been successfully installed on you computer.

Then follow the paragraphs “configuration” and “Compilation” from normal computers.

Additional steps

Setting specifically the SURFEX binaries to be used by s2m is done by exporting the variable EXESURFEX pointing to the directory containing the PGD, PREP and OFFLINE binaries:

export EXESURFEX=/home/...yoursurfexdirectory../exe

You can add this line to your $HOME/.bash_profile file if you are installing the SURFEX version you want to use by default.

After SURFEX compilation, binaries have their complete names (with compiler name, surfex version, mpi option and optimization level) so you need to create manually symbolic links with these short names as s2m work with the short names. Please check carefully the full names of your binaries (depending on SURFEX version, compiler and compilation options) to build the symbolic links. Example :

ln -s $EXESURFEX/OFFLINE-LXgfortran-SFX-V8-1-1-NOMPI-O2-X0 $EXESURFEX/OFFLINE
ln -s $EXESURFEX/PREP-LXgfortran-SFX-V8-1-1-NOMPI-O2-X0 $EXESURFEX/PREP
ln -s $EXESURFEX/PGD-LXgfortran-SFX-V8-1-1-NOMPI-O2-X0 $EXESURFEX/PGD
ln -s $EXESURFEX/SODA-LXgfortran-SFX-V8-1-1-NOMPI-O2-X0 $EXESURFEX/SODA

Test your snowtools and SURFEX install

If you correctly installed the snowtools and SURFEX projects, you must be able to run successfully the following test case:

s2m research -f $SNOWTOOLS_CEN/snowtools/DATA/FORCING_test_base.nc -b 20100801 -e 20110801 -o output -g -s ...yoursurfexdirectory.../exe