ICON Meeting 2026/1¶
10 March 2026, ETH Zurich (L 17.1) and via Zoom
Participants (on-site)¶
Michael Jähn (MJ), Annika Lauber (AL), Mikael Stellio (MS), Dominik Schumacher (DS), Victoria Bauer (VB), Laurenz Roither (LR), Marius Rixen (MR), Christian Zeman (CZ), Morgane Lalonde (MoL), Katharina Epp (KE), Andrea Stenke (AS), Luce Creman (LC), Marco Arpagaus (MA), Sylvaine Ferrachat (SF)
Participants (Zoom)¶
Matthieu Leclair (MaL), Erik Koene (EK), David Leutwyler (DL), Doris Folini (DF), Alina Yapparova (AY), Sandro Vattioni (SV), Matthias Kraushaar (MK)
Minutes by Annika Lauber
Reports¶
C2SM (Michael Jähn, Matthieu Leclair, Annika Lauber, Mikael Stellio)¶
MJ welcomes everyone and shares the latest news about ICON from C2SM .
Dominik Schumacher¶
Does not work with ICON directly; collaborating with VB.
Victoria Bauer¶
Works with soil moisture prescription. Running 3 km soil-moisture experiment to compare with 12 km setup.
Laurenz Roither¶
Running ICON-NWP on Euler initialized from ERA5 with multiple online nesting steps. Wants to employ daily SST and sea-ice updates; currently facing issues and looking for help.
Marius Rixen¶
Analyzed global ICON ensemble simulations focusing on Rossby waves. Now working with DYAMOND simulations and conducting a grid-sensitivity study.
Christian Zeman¶
Global high-resolution EXCLAIM simulations at 2.5 km were done previously; now completed 10 km and one 40 km run using SIROCCO. Potential for high- vs. low-resolution comparison. Currently setting up 3 km EURO-CORDEX run; determining appropriate namelist.
Morgane Lalonde¶
Implementing groundwater scheme in JSBACH. Currently evaluating the scheme.
Katharina Epp¶
Master’s student in Andreas Prein's group. Working on urban scheme in JSBACH.
Andrea Stenke¶
Running ICON-ART on Euler; working on selenium and arsenic cycles.
Luce Creman¶
Started PhD with AS. Including selenium cycle in ICON-ART.
Sylvaine Ferrachat¶
Working with HAM aerosol module. Upgrading ICON version in ICON-HAM; moving to newer ICON version and asking whether the memory issue in ICON v2.6.4 has been resolved. Developing microphysics scheme and performing sanity checks on aerosol side.
Alina Yapparova¶
Working in the data assimilation group. Including 3D radar reflectivity. Planning minor EMVORADO developments to include frequency-of-usability maps.
Erik Koene¶
Works at EMPA with ICON-ART and the current Processing Chain ; asking whether it is still used. MJ confirms it is still used (e.g. by LR). Reports that Arash Hamzehloo is expected to finish the emission module soon. Currently running ICON-ART on CPU, which is still much faster than GPU. Question about mapping with Zonda, which cuts the domain off over Spain; created a version covering all of Europe and asks about merging it back. MS nots that Zonda is only the web interface and changes could be proposed via a merge request in EXTPAR. Another PR regenerates CORINE, which may do the same.
Doris Folini¶
Studying heat waves under highly idealized conditions using ICON. Transitioning from ICON v2.6.4 to a newer version.
David Leutwyler¶
Doing code maintenance and spending a big part of his time on AI projects. Working on an improved version for forecasts.
Matthias Kraushar¶
Ensures that existing applications continue to work after Säntis upgrade on 11 March 2026. If issues occur, users should reach out via Slack or open a ticket at CSCS.
Marco Arpagaus¶
Planning update of operational version, which should bring improvements in precipitation and surface temperatures. Still working on APT (adapted parameter tuning), which is expected to improve forecast, especially near-surface temperature and potentially also wind. More information on APT can be found in the paper Zängl 2023 .
Developing multi-layer snow model; close to merge into main (NIX). Nander Wever moved to a permanent position at SLF and is still working on NIX.
Persistent deficiencies in precipitation remain, especially during high-precipitation events in north-westerly flow situations. Possible future positions to investigate this, though resources at MeteoSwiss are limited.