Hello everyone!
This is ASPECT newsletter #96.
It automatically reports recently merged features and discussions about the ASPECT mantle convection code.
Below you find a list of recently proposed or merged features:
#3364: Fix periodicity direction in box with lithosphere boundary indicators (proposed by anne-glerum; merged)
#3363: Adiabatic boundary (proposed by njinju)
#3362: update parameters (proposed by tjhei)
#3357: Simplify step limiting logic and add error message for negative timesteps (proposed by gassmoeller; merged)
#3356: use reference density for conduction timestep (proposed by tjhei; merged)
#3355: followup to #3333: libdap configuration (proposed by tjhei; merged)
#3353: Align particle prob. density function code with deal.ii. (proposed by MFraters; merged)
#3352: add test for spherical velocity components viz postprocessor (proposed by tjhei)
#3351: remove deprecated TimerOutput::exit_section (proposed by tjhei; merged)
#3350: Reuse Newton code for single advection iterated Newton Stokes code. (proposed by MFraters; merged)
#3349: Fix probability density mpi problem (proposed by MFraters; merged)
#3348: add petsc removal changelog entry (proposed by tjhei; merged)
#3347: disable PETSc for now (proposed by tjhei; merged)
#3346: fix URLs in PR template (proposed by tjhei; merged)
#3344: small 64bit fixes (proposed by tjhei; merged)
#3343: Remove restriction to 3D from S40RTS initial condition plugin. (proposed by gassmoeller; merged)
#3342: new postprocessor to compute spherical components of velocity field (proposed by cedrict; merged)
#3340: extract logic for advance_time_step (proposed by tjhei; merged)
#3339: small formatting fix (proposed by tjhei; merged)
#3336: Abort expensive solve if Maximum number of expensive Stokes solver steps = 0 (proposed by tcclevenger; merged)
#3333: Libdap (proposed by kneumiller; merged)
#3327: www: update database.js tag to force loading new file (proposed by tjhei; merged)
#3109: Refactor newton solver scheme. (proposed by MFraters; merged)
#3058: Free surface tractions (proposed by fionaclerc; merged)
And this is a list of recently opened or closed discussions:
#3361 check ParameterHandler changes in deal master (opened)
#3360 deprecated-copy warning (opened)
#3359 Chunk+free surface unwanted deformation (opened)
#3358 Improve material model evaluation to respect averaging and formulation (opened)
#3354 particle problem with deal.ii 9.2.0-pre but not 9.0.1 (opened)
#3345 Invalid link for contributing template (opened and closed)
#3341 Implement a time update() function for the gravity function plugin (opened)
A list of all major changes since the last release can be found at this website .
Thanks for being part of the community!
Let us know about questions, problems, bugs or just share your experience by visting our [forum](https://community.geodynamics.org/c/aspect), or by opening issues or pull requests on [Github](https://www.github.com/geodynamics/aspect).
Additional information can be found at our [official website](https://aspect.geodynamics.org/), and CIG's [ASPECT website](https://geodynamics.org/cig/software/aspect/).