Explanation of the content of rasm_utils/Post_processing/fluxes
---------------------------------------------------------------

This directory contains commensurate masks on the RASM 1/12deg and 50km ice-ocean  
an atmosphere-land domains, respectively, for calculating regional area-averaged 
fluxes and other quantities from model output. The marine domains are calculated 
on the ice-ocean mesh, and interpolated to the atmosphere grid. The individual 
domains are flux conserving, meaning that you can add two or more regional masks 
to create a larger mask, and the combined fluxes will be accurate for the given area.  
This is true for the ice-ocean domain, but more importantly for the atmosphere domain, 
where the masks are fractional areas, rather than comprised of only 1s and 0s. 
Finally, all atmospheric masks can be added together, and the sum of the fractional 
areas equals the ocean area fractions used by the coupler. This means that downward 
fluxes from the atmosphere to the ice-ocean surface can be derived directly from WRF
output, rather than from the coupler at any location within the mask area except
at the ocean edges of the masked area within the Pacific Boundary and Atlantic 
Boundary regional masks, and the southern edge of the Sea of Japan mask.  

The files within this directory are:

RASM_POPCICE_GRID_MASKS_AND_METRICS.nc - Masks on the ice-ocean domain, schematically
				         represented in the RASM_ocean_mask_key figure.
					 This file also contains other relevant 
					 ice-ocean cell metrics, including ocean depth.

RASM_WRFVIC_GRID_MASKS_AND_METRICS.nc  - Equivalent ice-ocean masks as described above
					 on the atmospheric (50km WRF) domain. This file
					 also contains relevant atmospheric cell metrics,
					 including terrain height in WRF.

RASM_VICRVIC_GRID_MASKS_AND_METRICS.nc  - VIC and RVIC masks on the land / runoff
                     atmosphere grid (wr50a).  This file includes three groups of masks:
                       1.  Drainage masks contributing to each of the ocean basin
                           masks in RASM_POPCICE_GRID_MASKS_AND_METRICS.nc.
                       2.  Drainage basin masks for the largest river basins in the
                           RASM domain.
                       3.  Masks corresponding to the major eco-climatic zones in
                           RASM domain.

RASM_ocean_mask_key.png	               - Schematic giving the regional flux masks.
RASM_ocean_drainage_basins_key.pdf     - Schematic giving the terestrial drainage
                                         basins masks draining to the each ocean basin.
RASM_major_rivers_key.pdf              - Schematic showing the location of the largest
                                         river basins in the RASM domain.
RASM_biomes_key.pdf                    - Schematic showing the location of the main
                                         eco-climatic zones in the RASM domain.


Change log
----------
Added land / runoff masks.  Joe Hamman Feb 24 2015
Created by Andrew Roberts June 15 2014