Toward Consistent Physical Constant Sets for Interoperable Earth System Models

The National ESPC Content Standard Committee has recently undertaken an initiative to standardize physical constants definitions in order to increase the interoperability of coupled Earth system models. This work is motivated by the general recognition that inconsistency in physical constant values – possibly arising from coupling independently-developed model components – may lead to lack of conservation of energy, mass, and momentum via spurious fluxes that may critically affect simulations by complex Earth system models. Matching physical constant sets embedded in each model component can be tedious, hard to achieve, and decreases the interoperability of model components. In this talk, we will discuss the design of a Community-based Physical Constant Dictionary (CPCD) consisting of a human-readable YAML Ain’t Markup Language file including a systemized physical constant inventory, and auxiliary processing tools. We will also show examples of CPCD definitions and their applications. A preliminary version of CPCD is currently available through the public GitHub repository: https://github.com/ESCOMP/PhysicalConstantsDictionary.