June 30, 2025 — Boulder, CO — The Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) has announced the public release of version 7.0.1 of the Common Community Physics Package (CCPP) Single-Column Model (SCM), a significant update to a key component of the Unified Forecast System (UFS) ecosystem. This release delivers targeted improvements to the SCM framework, while maintaining compatibility with the previously released CCPP Physics and Framework v7.0.0, which remain unchanged.
The CCPP SCM serves as a simplified host model for testing physical parameterizations used in Earth system prediction models, allowing developers and scientists to isolate and evaluate physics schemes outside the full complexity of a 3D-weather model. SCM v7.0.1 introduces a suite of enhancements aimed at improving usability, platform compatibility, and reproducibility for the broader modeling and research community.
Key Enhancements in SCM v7.0.1
Among the key updates in this release is the expansion of UFS case generation tools. Users can now specify grid indices (i, j) from the Finite-Volume Cubed-Sphere (FV3) native grid and a corresponding tile number to generate single-column cases more precisely. Additionally, the tool has been upgraded to accept a list of indices for batch generation, streamlining workflows for researchers running multiple configurations in parallel.
Another significant fix addresses area logic within the SCM. The update corrects how the model assigns column area from Development and Evaluation of Physics (DEPHY) forcing files. Furthermore, users can now override area assignments directly via the configuration namelist, giving scientists more control over experiment design.
The SCM v7.0.1 also standardizes the handling of missing values in NetCDF files by replacing hardcoded placeholders (-9999 and -9999.0) with the recognized _FillValue attribute, improving model robustness and compatibility with downstream tools.
Additionally, the documentation has been expanded and clarified, particularly around the use of the DEPHY converter script, which transforms legacy forcing files into the DEPHY Format v1.0. The documentation now also describes the expected behavior of the Near-Surface Sea Temperature (NSST) scheme when used in SCM, helping users better interpret simulation results.
Support for NOAA’s Ursa High-Performance Computing (HPC) platform has been added via Spack-Stack v1.9.1, ensuring seamless integration with one of NOAA’s key computing environments for operational forecasting and model development.
Scientific Foundation and Applications
The CCPP Physics library—which SCM interfaces with—is a central component of the UFS and includes a variety of parameterizations used for operational and experimental forecasts across NOAA and partner institutions. These include suites currently used in the Global Forecast System (GFS), the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR), the Warn-on-Forecast System (WoFS), and future development versions such as GFSv17 and HRRR with Grell-Freitas (GF) parameterization (HRRR_gf).
SCM v7.0.1 supports multiple physics suites, enabling researchers to evaluate individual parameterizations in isolation before deploying them in full-scale forecasting models. The CCPP parameterizations are used across a range of UFS applications, including:
- Short-Range Weather (SRW) Application (limited-area forecasts out to a few days)
- Medium-Range Weather (MRW) Application (global forecasts up to two weeks)
- Subseasonal-to-Seasonal (S2S) forecasts
- Hurricane Forecasting
By continuing to enhance SCM, the DTC empowers the research community to test and innovate within a modular, reproducible framework that directly informs operational weather and climate models.
Community and Collaboration
The CCPP SCM project represents a deep collaboration among government agencies, academic institutions, and research labs. The scientific documentation team, including contributors from NOAA’s Environmental Modeling Center (EMC), Global Systems Laboratory (GSL), and other NOAA labs has played a critical role in ensuring that the code, algorithms, and scientific assumptions are transparent and accessible.
Special thanks are extended to the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER), and several Cooperative Institutes (CIRES, CIRA, CISESS, CIWRO, and more) for their continued support and scientific input.
The core DTC CCPP development team includes Ligia Bernardet, Lulin Xue, Dustin Swales, Grant Firl, Man Zhang, Mike Kavulich, Weiwei Li, Soren Rasmussen, Tracy Hertneky, Samuel Trahan, Mike Ek, and Jimy Dudhia.
Access and Support
The SCM v7.0.1 source code is publicly available on GitHub and can be downloaded via archive files or cloned using the command:
git clone –recursive -b v7.0.1 https://github.com/NCAR/ccpp-scm
Users can access comprehensive resources—including user guides, scientific documentation, FAQs, and technical specifications—on the CCPP website. CCPP Physics and UFS GitHub Discussion forums are actively maintained for community support and engagement.
Looking Ahead
With each release, the CCPP SCM continues to evolve in support of the goals of the UFS community: building more accurate, modular, and extensible tools for weather prediction across scales. The SCM v7.0.1 release reinforces DTC’s commitment to transparent science, collaborative development, and continuous improvement in the tools that underpin the nation’s forecasting capabilities.
