MCT in CESM (and CCSM) help page

This page provides help and tips for MCT-related issues in CCSM4/CESM1.

Version of MCT in CCSM3- 2.1.0
Version of MCT in CCSM4- 2.7.0
Version of MCT in CESM1.0- 2.7.2
Version of MCT in CESM1.2- 2.8.3

Current standalone version of MCT - 2.9.0

See the ChangeLog for differences.

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MCT and CESM

MCT is one of several libraries that CESM uses during execution. MCT is used to transfer data between models like CAM and POP and the CESM coupler. MCT is also used within the coupler for interpolation and intra-coupler data transfer operations.

MCT is distributed as part of the CESM source code. You can find the MCT source in $CCSMROOT/models/utils/mct.


Upgrading MCT

Follow these steps to upgrade the version of MCT in CCSM or CESM.
You can now go back to your case directory and rebuild CESM. You should rebuild the entire application.

Unless stated otherwise, when substituting the version of MCT in CCSM3/CCSM4/CESM1 with the current version, the answers produced by the model will not change.


The MCT and CESM build systems

MCT is built as one of the external libraries of CESM. It is compiled before any of the executables. If MCT is not built successfully, the CESM build will fail.
MCT uses autoconf as its build tool. Autoconf requires you to first run "./configure" before typing "make". This is what the mct.buildlib script does. "./configure" searches your system for Fortran compilers and MPI libraries and sets default compilation flags according to what it finds.

Changing the MCT build options in CCSM

The MCT build options can be changed by adding options to the "./configure" command in the mct.buildlib script. It is possible to change the optimization level, etc. See $CCSMROOT/models/utils/mct/README for more information. Also see the examples for Linux-ia64 and UNICOS in mct.buildlib.

To get a list of possible configure options, type "./configure -help" in $CCSMROOT/utils/mct.

Common MCT build problems

MCT and CCSM compiled with different compilers
One problem is when "./configure" finds a Fortran compiler which is different from the one used by CCSM. This is only a problem on systems that have more than one Fortran compiler. If the compiler "./configure" found works, then MCT will build without error but the CCSM build will fail later when trying to link an application to the MCT library. The same Fortran compiler must be used throughout the CCSM build process.

"./configure" will use the first Fortran compiler it finds in your path. To get around this problem, you can specify which compiler to use with the F90 option:
./configure F90=ifort

If you have a special compiler for compiling MPI programs, such as mpif90 or mpxlf90, use the MPIF90 command:
./configure F90=xlf MPIF90=mpxlf90

Another option would be to alter your $PATH so the appropriate compiler is found first.