SPITFIRE options for FATES

[ychengen]

Hi,

CTSM-FATES provides different options from an unset value to 0-5 for using SPITFIRE. If I configure my run with "I2000Clm51FatesRs" and set "fates_spitfire_mode = 0" in user_nl_clm, is there no fire at all during my simulation? Or does my simulation still include/inherit fires from the host land model if I don't specify the "-nofire" flag when setting up my case? Thank you!

[jkshuman]

@ychengen by default there is no active fire for a case. The default value for the SPITFIRE mode is set with a namelist setting, so for clm in the user_nl_clm file:
fates_spitfire_mode = 0

There will be no fire provided from the host land model. You will only have active fire by setting fates_spitfire_mode to something other than 0.

More details about the active fire modes can be found in the FATES User's Guide https://fates-users-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user/SPITFIRE-Namelist-Options.html

[ychengen]

@jkshuman Thanks for clarifying this.

I am confused about these options since I have an impression that I was told during an online CESM workshop previously that setting fates_spitfire_mode = 0 would still have fires from CLM5 Fang Li model, if "-nofire" flag is not specifically given when compiling the model.

Thanks again for your answer.

[jkshuman]

@ychengen the CLM5 Li fire model is not available as part of FATES as it is not configured to run with the size-structured vegetation of FATES. The Li fire model is available as part of CLM5 BGC, but SPITFIRE is not configured to run in CLM5-BGC.