% $Id$
%
% Earth System Modeling Framework
% Copyright (c) 2002-2025, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, 
% Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics 
% Laboratory, University of Michigan, National Centers for Environmental 
% Prediction, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, 
% NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
% Licensed under the University of Illinois-NCSA License.

%\subsection{Description}
\label{sec:SciComp}

In Earth system modeling, a particular piece of code representing a physical 
domain, such as an atmospheric model or an ocean model, is typically 
implemented as an ESMF Gridded Component, or {\tt ESMC\_GridComp}.  
However, there are times when physical domains, or realms, need to be 
represented, but aren't actual pieces of code, or software.  These domains 
can be implemented as ESMF Science Components, or {\tt ESMC\_SciComp}.

Unlike Gridded and Coupler Components, Science Components are not associated 
with software; they don't include execution routines such as initialize, 
run and finalize.  The main purpose of a Science Component 
is to provide a container for Attributes within a Component hierarchy. 
