[FEATURE REQUEST] Auto-generate HEMCO_sa_Spec.rc

[lizziel]

Name and Institution (Required)

Name: Lizzie Lundgren
Institution: Harvard University

New HEMCO feature or discussion

There currently is the option to choose a HEMCO_Config.rc from an existing GEOS-Chem directory when creating a HEMCO standalone run directory. HEMCO_Diagn.rc is also retrieved from that run directory. It is then left to the user to fill in HEMCO_sa_Spec.rc with the full list of species and their MWs and Henry's Law coefficients. The sample HEMCO_sa_Spec.rc is filled with GEOS-Chem standard simulation species but this is not always a direct match with the species in the version of GEOS-Chem you take a HEMCO_Config.rc file from. If you get HEMCO_Config.rc from a completely different simulation, e.g. transport tracers, then the species lists do not match at all.

It would be great to instead have the option to automatically generate a HEMCO_sa_Spec.rc file from information in a GEOS-Chem run directory when creating a HEMCO run directory. This could be done by parsing the transported species list in geoschem_config.yml and the species properties in species_database.yml.

Having this tool available as a standalone script would be very helpful even apart of HEMCO standalone. CESM requires all of the information stored in HEMCO_sa_Spec.rc to be in an input netCDF file when running chemistry. Being able to produce this file quickly would help update that netCDF file with every new GEOS-Chem version.