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TIEGCM Neutral-density fallback treats He as N₂ #1199

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@hkershaw-brown

Neutral-density fallback treats He as N₂

When direct interpolation of QTY_DENSITY fails for all ensemble members, get_expected_upper_atm_density calculates density using O and O₂ mass mixing ratios, pressure, and temperature. Its mean molar mass formula treats 1 − O − O₂ entirely as N₂.

TIEGCM has included He, enabled by default, since 2.0. When He is present, this formula overestimates mean molar mass and therefore density at fixed pressure and temperature. This is separate from the pressure error below; the combined density bias need not be positive.

Source: density formula and TIEGCM's He treatment

! density [Kg/m3] = pressure [N/m2] * M [g/mol] / temperature [K] / R [N*m/K/kmol]
! where M is the mean molar mass
! 1/M = sum(wi/Mi) where wi are mass mixing fractions and Mi are individual molar masses
where (istatus == 0)
mass_reciprocal = mmro1/O_molar_mass + mmro2/O2_molar_mass + &
(1.0_r8-mmro1-mmro2)/N2_molar_mass
obs_val = pressure / mass_reciprocal / temperature / universal_gas_constant

TIEGCM 2.0: He enabled by default · Mean molar mass including He

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