E3SM-Unified 1.13.0 Brings New Tools and Analysis Updates

E3SM-Unified 1.13.0 is now available, bringing a fresh round of updates to E3SM’s shared Conda and Spack environment. The release packages the project’s core analysis, pre-processing, and post-processing tools into a more consistent workflow for users running on supported HPC systems as well as their own machines.

Major Changes & Highlights

• The cprnc tool, which is widely used by E3SM developers to analyze a NetCDF file or compare two NetCDF files, has been added to E3SM-Unified.
• PyTorch has been included, likely of interest for many Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) applications.
• Core tools have been updated, including E3SM-Diags, e3sm_to_cmip, LIVVKit, mosaic, MPAS-Analysis, MPAS-Tools, NCO, TempestExtremes, xcdat, zppy, and zstash.
• E3SM-Unified now uses pixi rather than conda as the package manager for Conda packages. To inspect packages and versions, use pixi list instead of conda list.
• There is still a known issue with X forwarding for the ncvis GUI on macOS machines with Apple Silicon. As a workaround, run defaults write org.xquartz.X11 enable_render_extension 0 on your local machine and restart XQuartz, or use E3SM-Unified 1.9.0.

Package-by-Package Summary

• E3SM-Diags 3.2.0 adds new diagnostics: Precipitation probability distribution function (PDF), mixed-phased partition diagram using simulator output, AIRS Spectral Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) based diagnostics; improves EAMxx workflow support, and supports arbitrary start months for S2D timeseries; COSP satellite datasets have been updated.
• e3sm_to_cmip 1.14.0 adds EAMxx support for CMORization, updates variable support for v3 ELM, and introduces the --on-var-failure flag.
• LIVVKit 3.3.1 and LIVVExt 1.1.0 add new ice-sheet diagnostics, time series and long-term mean plots, and new observational comparisons.
• mosaic 1.3.0 expands projection and contouring support, adds more flexible array handling, and substantially improves rendering performance.
• MPAS-Analysis 1.15.0 includes bug fixes, especially for model-vs-model analysis.
• NCO 5.3.7 to 5.3.9 add more flexible `ncclimo` month handling, support for EAMxx diurnal climos, and performance-oriented buffer controls.
• xcdat 0.11.2 adds land-sea mask generation, improves startup performance, and fixes compatibility issues with newer Xarray behavior.
• zppy 3.2.0 adds LIVVKit ice-sheet analysis, MPAS-Analysis model-vs-model workflows, and the precip_pdf and mp_partition diagnostics sets.
• zppy-interfaces 0.2.1 enables global_time_series ocean plots even when atmosphere data is unavailable.
• zstash 1.6.0 improves performance and fixes tar cleanup behavior for --non-blocking runs.

For a full list of packages and versions, see the E3SM-Unified confluence page.

Where to Use It

The 1.13.0 environment has been deployed on all supported systems: Andes, Aurora, Chrysalis, Compy, Dane, Frontier, Perlmutter, and Polaris. For OLCF workflows, Andes (not Frontier) remains the recommended system for processing and analysis.

On Aurora, Chrysalis, Compy, Dane, Frontier, and Perlmutter, key packages including ESMF, ILAMB, MOAB, NCO, TempestExtremes, and TempestRemap are built with Spack for improved parallel performance on compute nodes. Tools for building E3SM documentation locally are also included in E3SM-Unified.

Looking Ahead

Work on E3SM-Unified 1.14.0 is expected to start with testing in October, ahead of a planned November 2026 release. Suggestions for package updates, including possible AI/ML additions, are welcome on the v1.14.0 GitHub page.

Resources

• main page: E3SM Unified Environment
• E3SM-Unified 1.12.0
• E3SM-Unified 1.11.1
• E3SM-Unified 1.10.0
• E3SM-Unified 1.9.0
• E3SM-Unified 1.8.0
• Latest Suite of Analysis Tools: E3SM-Unified 1.5.0
• E3SM-Unified Environment Update
• E3SM Unified Environment v1.3.0

Contact

• Xylar Asay-Davis, Argonne National Laboratory
• Andrew Nolan, Los Alamos National Laboratory