Getting Started

ROMS is a very complex model with many options and capabilities. ROMS is composed of many Fortran files (*.F), a few header files (*.h), various input script files (*.in), a metadata variable definition file (varinfo.dat), and a single makefile. The ROMS algorithms are distributed with the following directory structure:

 src/                                         main root directory
      -------- Compilers/                     make configuration files
      -------- Lib/                           external libraries
      -------- makefile                       a single makefile
      -------- Master/                        main programs
      -------- ROMS/                          ROMS root directory
                      -------- Adjoint/       adjoint model
                      -------- Bin/           executable scripts
                      -------- Drivers/       computational drivers
                      -------- External/      input scripts
                      -------- Include/       configuration header files
                      -------- Modules/       declaration modules
                      -------- Nonlinear/     nonlinear model
                      -------- Obsolete/      discontinued files
                      -------- Programs/      support programs
                      -------- SeaIce/        sea-ice model
                      -------- Representer/   representer model
                      -------- Tangent/       tangent linear model
                      -------- Utility/       generic utility files
                      -------- Version        version information

ROMS uses extensively C-preprocessing to activate and/or deactivate the various numerical and physical algorithm options. It also uses NetCDF to manage input and output data streams. It is highly recommended that first time users learn the basics about NetCDF before starting working with ROMS.

Basic Steps:

• Register in the ROMS website (www.myroms.org) to get access to the algorithms and other user privileges. The user needs to select an username and password which will be used in the future to login and post messages in the ROMS forum, algorithm downloads, and contributing to wikiROMS.

• Download the ROMS distribution file, unzip and untar to the desired directory. After unpacking, the ROMS files are placed in the directory tree structure shown above.