Atmospheric circulation of tidally locked exoplanets: a suite of benchmark tests for dynamical solvers

The complexity of atmospheric modelling and its inherent non-linearity, together with the limited amount of data of exoplanets available, motivate model intercomparisons and benchmark tests. In the geophysical community, the Held-Suarez test is a standard benchmark for comparing dynamical core simulations of the Earth's atmosphere with different solvers, based on statistically-averaged flow quantities. In the present study, we perform analogues of the Held-Suarez test for tidally-locked exoplanets with the GFDL-Princeton Flexible Modeling System (FMS) by subjecting both the spectral and finite difference dynamical cores to a suite of tests, including the standard benchmark for Earth, a hypothetical tidally-locked Earth, a "shallow" hot Jupiter model and a "deep" model of HD 209458b. We find qualitative and quantitative agreement between the solvers for the Earth, tidally-locked Earth and shallow hot Jupiter benchmarks, but the agreement is less than satisfactory for the deep model of HD 209458b. Further investigation reveals that closer agreement may be attained by arbitrarily adjusting the values of the horizontal dissipation parameters in the two solvers, but it remains the case that the magnitude of the horizontal dissipation is not easily specified from first principles. Irrespective of radiative transfer or chemical composition considerations, our study points to limitations in our ability to accurately model hot Jupiter atmospheres with meteorological solvers at the level of ten percent for the temperature field and several tens of percent for the velocity field. Direct wind measurements should thus be particularly constraining for the models. Our suite of benchmark tests also provides a reference point for researchers wishing to adapt their codes to study the atmospheric circulation regimes of tidally-locked Earths/Neptunes/Jupiters.Comment: Accepted by MNRAS, 23 pages, 17 figures, 2 tables. No changes from previous version, except MNRAS wants no hyphen in the title. Sample movies of simulations are available at http://www.phys.ethz.ch/~kheng/fms

The Nature of Knowledge in Composition and Literary Understanding: The Question of Specificity

↵PETER SMAGORINSKY is Assistant Professor, College of Education, University of Oklahoma, 820 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019-0. He specializes in classroom literacy.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Circulation characteristics in three eddy-permitting models of the North Atlantic

A systematic intercomparison of three realistic eddy-permitting models of the North Atlantic circulation has been performed. The models use different concepts for the discretization of the vertical coordinate, namely geopotential levels, isopycnal layers, terrain-following (sigma) coordinates, respectively. Although these models were integrated under nearly identical conditions, the resulting large-scale model circulations show substantial differences. The results demonstrate that the large-scale thermohaline circulation is very sensitive to the model representation of certain localised processes, in particular to the amount and water mass properties of the overflow across the Greenland-Scotland region, to the amount of mixing within a few hundred kilometers south of the sills, and to several other processes at small or sub-grid scales. The different behaviour of the three models can to a large extent be explained as a consequence of the different model representation of these processes

Simulating bank erosion over an extended natural sinuous river reach using a universal slope stability algorithm coupled with a morphodynamic model

Meandering river channels are often associated with cohesive banks. Yet only a few river modelling packages include geotechnical and plant effects. Existing packages are solely compatible with single-threaded channels, require a specific mesh structure, derive lateral migration rates from hydraulic properties, determine stability based on friction angle, rely on nonphysical assumptions to describe cutoffs, or exclude floodplain processes and vegetation. In this paper, we evaluate the accuracy of a new geotechnical module that was developed and coupled with Telemac-Mascaret to address these limitations. Innovatively, the newly developed module relies on a fully configurable, universal genetic algorithm with tournament selection that permits it (1) to assess geotechnical stability along potentially unstable slope profiles intersecting liquid-solid boundaries, and (2) to predict the shape and extent of slump blocks while considering mechanical plant effects, bank hydrology, and the hydrostatic pressure caused by flow. The profiles of unstable banks are altered while ensuring mass conservation. Importantly, the new stability module is independent of mesh structure and can operate efficiently along multithreaded channels, cutoffs, and islands. Data collected along a 1.5-km-long reach of the semialluvial Medway Creek, Canada, over a period of 3.5 years are used to evaluate the capacity of the coupled model to accurately predict bank retreat in meandering river channels and to evaluate the extent to which the new model can be applied to a natural river reach located in a complex environment. Our results indicate that key geotechnical parameters can indeed be adjusted to fit observations, even with a minimal calibration effort, and that the model correctly identifies the location of the most severely eroded bank regions. The combined use of genetic and spatial analysis algorithms, in particular for the evaluation of geotechnical stability independently of the hydrodynamic mesh, permits the consideration of biophysical conditions for an extended river reach with complex bank geometries, with only a minor increase in run time. Further improvements with respect to plant representation could assist scientists in better understanding channel-floodplain interactions and in evaluating channel designs in river management projects

The Creation of National Cultures through Education, the Inequities They Produce, and the Challenges for Multicultural Education

This essay compares and contrasts the educational movements of three nations—the United States, Mexico, and the Soviet Union—established according to Eurocentric cultural values. In each country, mass education was undertaken to help produce an assimilative national culture during formative periods characterized by instability. In two of these nations, the U.S. and Mexico, this foundation eventually required an accommodation to address multiculturalism. This latter-day perspective is designed to recognize, respect, and appreciate a variety of cultures. This essay examines the ways in which these two oppositional goals—monoculturalism and multiculturalism—have intersected in schools.