Having issue with init_atmosphere using external ESMF installation

[uturuncoglu]

If i Compile MPAS with external ESMF the init_atmosphere is not working and I am getting following error,

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Beginning MPAS-init_atmosphere Error Log File for task       0 of       1
    Opened at 2026/03/10 10:53:25
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ERROR: Invalid DateTime string (invalid time substring) initial_time
CRITICAL ERROR: xml stream parser failed: streams.init_atmosphere
Logging complete.  Closing file at 2026/03/10 10:53:26

I think this will be an issue in the future since user wants to compile with external ESMF might also want to use init program. BTW, this is ESMF 8.9.0.