E3SM Hackathons

To foster collaboration and address some neglected yet high-priority issues for E3SM, our team is exploring a series of E3SM Hackathons, each targeted at a particular component, tool, or aspect of the framework. The hackathons are designed to be highly collaborative and hands-on, involving 7 to 10 participants, and to take place over a 2-week period. The participants will decide on and create a list of tasks to work on during the hackathon. Daily check-ins will be used to discuss progress and self-assign tasks in a process based on Scrum. A major emphasis of the Hackathon will be pairing experts with newer developers so that more E3SM team members contribute to and feel ownership over our codes.

Some goals for the hackathon are:

1. to make progress on some neglected work
2. to train new developers
3. to foster future contributions
4. to strengthen our sense of being a team (much needed because of COVID isolation)

The first two hackathons, organized by Carolyn Begeman and Xylar Asay-Davis, are in various stages of planning. The hope is that others on the team will build on our experience and launch similar hackathons addressing other development needs. The hackathon team will report back on the experience and any lessons learned. They will also provide recordings of the lecture-style introductory material for each Hackathon. Registration is now closed for both hackathons.

Hackathon 1

Improving the MPAS framework with a focus on CF-compliance

May 16th to 27th, 2022

8 participants with varying levels of MPAS expertise

This hackathon focuses on neglected features for the MPAS framework and MPAS components (MPAS-Ocean, MPAS-Seaice, and MALI). The emphasis is on making MPAS output CF-compliant, and making sure that MPAS-Analysis and other downstream tools can make proper use of the new output.  Another topic is likely to be better handling of compiler and I/O errors. The hackathon included a few days of introduction to the CF-conventions and the MPAS framework (Fig.1 ) that was recorded and is available to the full E3SM team and our collaborators.

Available hackathon recordings and presentations are posted on the Tutorials page and currently include:

• • A Short Introduction to the MPAS Framework
    • MP4 Movie (on the E3SM YouTube Channel)
    • PDF of Tutorial
  • Climate Forecast (CF) Conventions for MPAS
    • MP4 Movie (on the E3SM YouTube Channel)
    • PDF of Tutorial

Hackathon 2

AMOC and sea-ice analysis in MPAS-Analysis

Tentatively scheduled for early fall 2022

10 participants with varying levels of MPAS-Analysis expertise

The main focus of this hackathon will be to add new, standard analysis related to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and sea ice to MPAS-Analysis.  The AMOC Working Group and other E3SM team members and collaborators have developed personal scripts they use for this analysis, and part of the process will be to make this code robust and general for incorporation into MPAS-Analysis.  MPAS-Analysis also includes only a small amount of analysis for MPAS-Seaice output. In collaboration with the Sea Ice Working Group, sea-ice analysis will be expanded to include plots such as sea-ice formation, transport, and melting.  Additionally, the team has developed scripts for analyzing surface water-mass transformation in polar regions that we hope to incorporate into MPAS-Analysis. As there are currently not many MPAS-Analysis developers, a major aim of the hackathon will be to have participants document their process with notes that we would combine into a developer’s guide. This hackathon will also include a few days of introduction to MPAS-Analysis development that will also be available to the full E3SM team and our collaborators.