13 research outputs found
FVM 1.0: a nonhydrostatic finite-volume dynamical core for the IFS
We present a nonhydrostatic finite-volume global atmospheric model
formulation for numerical weather prediction with the Integrated Forecasting
System (IFS) at ECMWF and compare it to the established operational
spectral-transform formulation. The novel Finite-Volume Module of the IFS
(henceforth IFS-FVM) integrates the fully compressible equations using
semi-implicit time stepping and non-oscillatory forward-in-time (NFT)
Eulerian advection, whereas the spectral-transform IFS solves the hydrostatic
primitive equations (optionally the fully compressible equations) using a
semi-implicit semi-Lagrangian scheme. The IFS-FVM complements the
spectral-transform counterpart by means of the finite-volume discretization
with a local low-volume communication footprint, fully conservative and
monotone advective transport, all-scale deep-atmosphere fully compressible
equations in a generalized height-based vertical coordinate, and flexible
horizontal meshes. Nevertheless, both the finite-volume and
spectral-transform formulations can share the same quasi-uniform horizontal
grid with co-located arrangement of variables, geospherical
longitudeâlatitude coordinates, and physics parameterizations, thereby
facilitating their comparison, coexistence, and combination in the IFS.
We highlight the advanced semi-implicit NFT finite-volume integration of the
fully compressible equations of IFS-FVM considering comprehensive
moist-precipitating dynamics with coupling to the IFS cloud parameterization
by means of a generic interface. These developments â including a new
horizontalâvertical split NFT MPDATA advective transport scheme, variable
time stepping, effective preconditioning of the elliptic Helmholtz solver in
the semi-implicit scheme, and a computationally efficient implementation of
the median-dual finite-volume approach â provide a basis for the efficacy of
IFS-FVM and its application in global numerical weather prediction. Here,
numerical experiments focus on relevant dry and moist-precipitating
baroclinic instability at various resolutions. We show that the presented
semi-implicit NFT finite-volume integration scheme on co-located meshes of
IFS-FVM can provide highly competitive solution quality and computational
performance to the proven semi-implicit semi-Lagrangian integration scheme of
the spectral-transform IFS.</p
PhysicsâDynamics Coupling in weather, climate and Earth system models: Challenges and recent progress
This is the final version. Available from American Meteorological Society via the DOI in this record.Numerical weather, climate, or Earth system models involve the coupling of components. At a broad level, these components can be classified as the resolved fluid dynamics, unresolved fluid dynamical aspects (i.e., those represented by physical parameterizations such as subgrid-scale mixing), and nonfluid dynamical aspects such as radiation and microphysical processes. Typically, each component is developed, at least initially, independently. Once development is mature, the components are coupled to deliver a model of the required complexity. The implementation of the coupling can have a significant impact on the model. As the error associated with each component decreases, the errors introduced by the coupling will eventually dominate. Hence, any improvement in one of the components is unlikely to improve the performance of the overall system. The challenges associated with combining the components to create a coherent model are here termed physicsâdynamics coupling. The issue goes beyond the coupling between the parameterizations and the resolved fluid dynamics. This paper highlights recent progress and some of the current challenges. It focuses on three objectives: to illustrate the phenomenology of the coupling problem with references to examples in the literature, to show how the problem can be analyzed, and to create awareness of the issue across the disciplines and specializations. The topics addressed are different ways of advancing full models in time, approaches to understanding the role of the coupling and evaluation of approaches, coupling ocean and atmosphere models, thermodynamic compatibility between model components, and emerging issues such as those that arise as model resolutions increase and/or models use variable resolutions.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)National Science FoundationDepartment of Energy Office of Biological and Environmental ResearchPacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)DOE Office of Scienc