Optimization of KINETICS Chemical Computation Code

Abstract

NASA JPL has been creating a code in FORTRAN called KINETICS to model the chemistry of planetary atmospheres. Recently there has been an effort to introduce Message Passing Interface (MPI) into the code so as to cut down the run time of the program. There has been some implementation of MPI into KINETICS; however, the code could still be more efficient than it currently is. One way to increase efficiency is to send only certain variables to all the processes when an MPI subroutine is called and to gather only certain variables when the subroutine is finished. Therefore, all the variables that are used in three of the main subroutines needed to be investigated. Because of the sheer amount of code that there is to comb through this task was given as a ten-week project. I have been able to create flowcharts outlining the subroutines, common blocks, and functions used within the three main subroutines. From these flowcharts I created tables outlining the variables used in each block and important information about each. All this information will be used to determine how to run MPI in KINETICS in the most efficient way possible.