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Add ability to smoothly turn off the MLE scheme for deep mixed layers - #443

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iangrooms wants to merge 4 commits into
NCAR:dev/ncarfrom
iangrooms:taper_mld_mle
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Add ability to smoothly turn off the MLE scheme for deep mixed layers#443
iangrooms wants to merge 4 commits into
NCAR:dev/ncarfrom
iangrooms:taper_mld_mle

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@iangrooms

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This PR adds the ability to 'taper' the mixed layer and boundary layer depths in the MLE scheme. This is controlled by two new parameters: MLE_TAPER_FN_DEPTH and MLE_TAPER_FN_POWER. When both new parameters are positive, the depth that the MLE scheme sees, denoted $H$, is replaced by

$$\frac{H}{1 + (H/H_0)^P}$$

where $P$ is MLE_TAPER_FN_POWER and $H_0$ is MLE_TAPER_FN_DEPTH. In the OM4 MLE scheme this is applied to $H=$ MLD_fast. In the Bodner MLE scheme this is applied to both big_H and little_h. For very deep mixed layers $H\gg H_0$ this effectively turns off the MLE restratification scheme, both by reducing the amplitude of the overturning (which scales with $H$) and by reducing the depth $H$ over which the parameterization is applied.

Note that this function does not directly modify any state variables, nor does it directly change the mixed layer depth. It only changes what the MLE scheme thinks is the mixed layer depth.

@chengz2

chengz2 commented Jul 30, 2026

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This PR has passed all CESM tests.

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