Major Release Planning for ESMF v9.0.0

[danrosen25]

The ESMF Core Team is planning major release v9.0.0. Detailed planning and notification is needed for this major release because it will break multiple ESMF interfaces and will require code changes to existing applications. Please review and contribute to this discussion as needed.

Planned Interface Changes

• Interface changes to the ESMF C API. Inconsistencies exist in the current ESMF C API that will be addressed.
• Default change to unmapped point handling within NUOPC Connectors. The current default ignores and zeros unmapped destination points when regridding. The planned default will throw an error if unmapped destination points exist. The current behavior can be achieved by configuring the NUOPC Connector via run sequence options, COMP1 -> COMP2 :unmappedaction=ignore. An alternative behavior extrapolates mapped points to unmapped points, COMP1 -> COMP2 :extrapmethod=nearest_idavg. It is also possible to ignore unmapped destination points without zeroing their values, COMP1 -> COMP2 :unmappedaction=ignore:zeroregion=select.

Future Planned Changes NOT scheduled for ESMF v9.0.0 (version TBD)

• Removal of the ESMF Attribute Class. This class has been replaced with the ESMF Info Class.
• Removal of the ESMF Config Class. This class has been replaced with the ESMF HConfig Class.

Thank you,
ESMF Core Team

[tclune]

I have no issues with the proposed changes, and encourage you to scour the framework for other deletions/changes. This might be the only opportunity to really clean things.

I should have a wish list of my own, but nothing is immediately occurring to me.