The Connectivity Modeling System (CMS), an open-source toolbox for Lagrangian analysis of the ocean circulation

Developed by Claire Paris, Judith Helgers, Erik van Sebille, and Ashwanth Srinivasan

Links: Model source code on Google Code Claire Paris' Lab page Associated peer-review article Home page

Using CMS in physical oceanography

The studies reported in papers 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22 and 24 from the Peer-reviewed articles page have been done using the Connectivity Modeling System (CMS). This is a very easy-to-use model toolbox, written in Fortran, to advect Lagrangian particles in any Ocean General Circulation Model fields.
The CMS has been used on velocity fields from OFES, HyCOM, NEMO, MITgcm, UVic, ECCO2, SOSE, and many other ocean models.

You can download the CMS source code from Google Code, where you can also download a user guide. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

Particles and Tasman leakage

A movie of Tasman leakage using Lagrangian particles from the Connectivity Modeling System (CMS). The particles are released south of Tasmania in the fine-resolution OFES model and then advected both forward and backward in time.
This movie is part of a study descried in Van Sebille, England, Zika, and Sloyan (2012) [ abstract ].

Particles in an Agulhas ring

A movie of Lagrangian particles advected using the Connectivity Modeling System (CMS), within the velocity fields from an idealised Agulhas ring described in Van Sebille and Van Leeuwen (2007) [ abstract ].

Official CMS description (from the Google Code page)

The Connectivity Modeling System (CMS) is a community multiscale modeling system, based on a stochastic Lagrangian framework. It was developed to study complex larval migrations and give probability estimates of population connectivity. In addition, the CMS can also provide a Lagrangian descriptions of oceanic phenomena (advection, dispersion, retention) and can be used in a broad range of applications, from the dispersion and fate of pollutants to marine spatial conservation.

A peer-reviewed manuscript introducing version 1.0 of the CMS has been accepted for publication in Environmental Modelling & Software. You can download this version 1.0 from the "Downloads" page. You will also find the user guide that goes with version 1.0 there.

Since acceptance of the manuscript, a number of improvements to the CMS have been made. Together, these make up version 1.1b, and you can download its source code from the "Source" page. The most important improvements in v1.1b are
1) The CMS is now grid-independent, meaning that it can handle Arakawa A, B and C grids. Note, however, that the grids still need to be orthogonal, such as for instance on a Mercator grid
2) The CMS can now make restart files, and restart from these files after for instance a crash
3) The CMS is now much faster, up to 50% compared to v1.0, especially on very large grids
4) In "physical oceanography mode" (i.e. when no ibm file is given), the CMS requires approximately 50% less memory than in v1.0
5) The robustness of the routines for calculating the starting times of particles have been enhanced
Note, however, that v1.1b (currently revision 109) in still in beta development.

This repository is to facilitate community contributions to the CMS suite of modules.

Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation Biological Oceanography Program (OCE-1048697, OCE- 0928423, OCE-0825625) to C.B. Paris.

For more information, please contact the primary owner:

Claire B. Paris
Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric
Division of Applied Marine Physics
University of Miami
4600 Rickenbacker causeway, Miami, FL 33179
email: [email protected]