Validation of a global finite element sea ice-ocean model

Results from a global Finite Element Sea iceOcean Model (FESOM) are evaluated using a wide range of observational datasets. FESOMs ocean component is a primitive-equation, hydrostatic ocean model using isopycnic diffusion and a Gent-McWilliams scheme to parameterize the effects of sub-gridscale turbulence on tracer distribution. Vertical mixing and convection are parameterized as a function of the Richardson number and the Monin-Obukhov length. A finite element dynamic-thermodynamic sea icemodel with elastic-viscous-plastic rheology has been developed and coupled to the ocean component. The model features a prognostic snow layer but neglects internal heat storage. All model components are discretized on a triangular/tetrahedral grid with a continuous, conformingrepresentation of model variables. The coupled model has been run in a global configuration and forced with NCEP daily atmospheric reanalysis data for 1948-2007. Results are analysed with a focus on the Southern Hemisphere. While summer ice extent is underestimated in both hemispheres, winter ice extents are in good agreement with satellite data. Southern Ocean sea ice thickness distribution agrees well with ship-based observations and even quantitatively with data from upwards looking sonars (ULS). Sea ice freezing rates have been validated using repeated salinity profiles from Southern Elephant Seals. Gulf Stream transport is underestimated, but transports of the Kuroshio and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current appear realistic. A comparison of numerical tracer studies to observed CFC distribution indicates that bottom layer ventilation occurs on realistic pathways. Global meridional overturning features a strong Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) cell, while the formation of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) appears to be on the weak side. Besides pure model validation, the study also identifies regions and processes that critically require a locally increased horizontal resolution in order to be represented adequately

Elementary dispersion analysis of some mimetic discretizations on triangular C-grids

Spurious modes supported by triangular C-grids limit their application for modeling large-scale atmospheric and oceanic flows. Their behavior can be modified within a mimetic approach that generalizes the scalar product underlying the triangular C-grid discretization. The mimetic approach provides a discrete continuity equation which operates on an averaged combination of normal edge velocities instead of normal edge velocities proper. An elementary analysis of the wave dispersion of the new discretization for Poincaré, Rossby and Kelvin waves shows that, although spurious Poincaré modes are preserved, their frequency tends to zero in the limit of small wavenumbers, which removes the divergence noise in this limit. However, the frequencies of spurious and physical modes become close on shorter scales indicating that spurious modes can be excited unless high-frequency short-scale motions are effectively filtered in numerical codes. We argue that filtering by viscous dissipation is more efficient in the mimetic approach than in the standard C-grid discretization. Lumping of mass matrices appearing with the velocity time derivative in the mimetic discretization only slightly reduces the accuracy of the wave dispersion and can be used in practice. Thus, the mimetic approach cures some difficulties of the traditional triangular C-grid discretization but may still need appropriately tuned viscosity to filter small scales and high frequencies in solutions of full primitive equations when these are excited by nonlinear dynamics

A Synthesis of the Upper Arctic Ocean Circulation During 2000-2019: Understanding the Roles of Wind Forcing and Sea Ice Decline

Major changes have occurred in the Arctic Ocean during 2000–2019, including the unprecedented spin-up of the Beaufort Gyre and the emergence of Arctic Atlantification in the eastern Eurasian Basin. We explored the main drivers for these changes by synthesizing numerical simulations and observations in this paper. The Arctic atmospheric circulation was unusual in some years in this period, with strongly negative wind curl over the Canada Basin. However, the wind-driven spin-up of the Beaufort Gyre would have been much weaker had it not been for Arctic sea ice decline. The sea ice decline not only fed the ocean with meltwater, but also made other freshwater components more available to the Beaufort Gyre through mediating the ocean surface stress. This dynamical effect of shifting surface freshwater from the Eurasian Basin towards the Amerasian Basin also resulted in the Arctic Atlantification in the eastern Eurasian Basin, which is characterized by halocline salinification and the uplift of the boundary between the halocline and the Atlantic Water layer. Contemporarily, the sea ice decline caused a strong warming trend in the Atlantic Water layer. The Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis of Arctic annual sea surface height for this period reveals that the first two modes of the upper ocean circulation have active centers associated with the Arctic Oscillation and Beaufort High variability, respectively. In the presence of sea ice decline the first two EOFs can better distinguish the ocean variability driven by the two atmospheric circulation modes. Therefore, the major changes in the Arctic Ocean in the past two decades are indicators of climate change as is the sea ice retreat. Our synthesis could help assess how the Arctic Ocean might change in future warming climate

Tunable superconducting microstrip resonators

We report on a simple yet versatile design for a tunable superconducting microstrip resonator. Niobium nitride is employed as the superconducting material and aluminum oxide, produced by atomic layer deposition, as the dielectric layer. We show that the high quality of the dielectric material allows to reach the internal quality factors in the order of Q(i) similar to 10(4) in the single photon regime. Q(i) rapidly increases with the number of photons in the resonator N and exceeds 10(5) for N similar to 10 - 50. A straightforward modification of the basic microstrip design allows to pass a current bias through the strip and to control its kinetic inductance. We achieve a frequency tuning delta f = 62 MHz around f(0) = 2.4 GHz for a fundamental mode and delta f = 164MHz for a third harmonic. This translates into a tuning parameter Q(i)delta f/f(0) = 150. The presented design can be incorporated into essentially any superconducting circuitry operating at temperatures below 2.5K

Methodological and practical aspects of pedagogical innovation logistics application in the regional educational holding

Transition to a post-industrial society determines the development of an educational system through innovations. To address the related issues, we need a methodology lined up with the post-industrial society and capable of maintaining effective innovation management in education. Creation of much-in-demand, competitive, and economically attractive educational innovations is largely associated with combined efforts of several educational organizations. Once merged in a territorial educational cluster, they establish conditions for a complete innovation life cycle. A driving mechanism for innovations to move throughout the entire life cycle is logistics. So far, two scientific positions have been formed in relation to the use of logistics in education. The first position is represented by educational logistics aimed at sustainable functioning of the educational system infrastructure. The second one encompasses pedagogical logistics, which facilitates effectiveness and quality of the teaching and educational process. None of them aim at development of an educational organization or its pedagogical system being implemented. Boosting the situation already in place could be done through integration of the educational and pedagogical logistics’ achievements supplemented by the idea to develop an educational infrastructure with a pedagogical system already in place into pedagogical innovation logistics. This logistics serves as a methodological basis of pedagogical innovations management in education. The scope of such logistics is a territorial educational cluster; its subject is infrastructural, educational, integrative flows, a flow of obstacles, and a pedagogical innovation flow. As a matter of applicability, the efficiency of pedagogical innovation logistics has been tested with a regional educational holding being an example. Its performance has been analyzed by using six criteria that evaluate the changes in the pedagogical innovation flow: rate, capacity, reference quality assessment, density, content variability, and uniformity. The data obtained have provided the evidence of practical efficiency of pedagogical innovation logistics

Discrete variance decay analysis of spurious mixing

Expressions for local discrete variance decay (DVD) rates are directly derived from discrete tracer equations without any assumptions on discrete fluxes of the second moment. Spurious mixing (SM) associated with numerical implementations of scalar advection and diffusion is thus estimated. The new framework is shown to avoid the need for second-moment flux definition when solved on finite-volume cell edges but still invoke certain second-moment fluxes when the DVD rates are partitioned to participating cell nodes. These implied discrete fluxes are shown to differ from those proposed in earlier literature (but share the same dissipative part) and thus reveal the non-uniqueness of their nature. They are shown to be ambiguous for high-order advection schemes introducing uncertainty to the locality of any estimates produced by a DVD approach. Additional damping of flux divergence through temporal averaging or some coarse-graining is thus shown to be necessary. Through the application of this technique, SM is found to be correlated with the distribution of eddy kinetic energy. The contribution from vertical advection to SM is found to be relatively small and correlated with the distribution of buoyancy fluxes. The explored high-order schemes are found to demonstrate levels of spurious mixing which may locally exceed background physical mixing.Comment: Submitted to Ocean Modelling Manuscript number: OCEMOD-D-23-00145. Name of funder: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Grant agreement or award number: 27476265

Cyclotron resonance photoconductivity of a two-dimensional electron gas in HgTe quantum wells

Far-infrared cyclotron resonance photoconductivity (CRP) is investigated in HgTe quantum wells (QWs) of various widths grown on (013) oriented GaAs substrates. It is shown that CRP is caused by the heating of two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). From the resonance magnetic field strength effective masses and their dependence on the carrier concentration is obtained. We found that the effective mass in each sample slightly increases from the value (0.0260 \pm 0.0005)m_0 at N_s = 2.2x10^11 cm^(-2) to (0.0335 \pm 0.0005)m_0 at N_s = 9.6x10^11 cm^(-2). Compared to determination of effective masses by the temperature dependence of magnitudes of the Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations used so far in this material our measurements demonstrate that the CRP provides a more accurate (about few percents) tool. Combining optical methods with transport measurements we found that the transport time substantially exceeds the cyclotron resonance lifetime as well as the quantum lifetime which is the shortest.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figure