| Multi-Resolution
Climate Modeling
This project will further develop and apply a spectral element
model of the atmospheric general circulation for use as a component
in a coupled climate model. The spectral element method allows
higher resolution over a limited region within a global model.
This method could improve climate and turbulence simulations
by allowing increased resolution in a few dynamically significant
areas, such as fronts or vortex filaments, while modeling the
interaction between coarse- and fine-scale phenomena. Regional
climate simulations may be improved by allowing regional resolution
to be incorporated within a global model in a two-way interactive
fashion.
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Figure
9 Mesh refinement in the northern
hemisphere: two uniform meshes (top and middle) and a
locally refined mesh (bottom).
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The advantages of the Spectral Element Atmosphere Model (SEAM)
include its high-resolution accuracy, flexibility, and efficiency
on parallel computers. Fournier et al. showed how local mesh
refinement in SEAM can be used to study regional dynamics
within a global model, without the usual recourse to interpolation,
boundary value or flux fixing (Figure 9). By locally refining
the element mesh, nearly the same-accuracy solution as a high-resolution
computation can be computed with only 1/22 the number of elements
and 3/4 of the time steps—a 94% saving of computational
cost.
INVESTIGATORS
F. Baer, A. Fournier, and H. Wang, University of Maryland;
M. A. Taylor, Los Alamos National Laboratory; J. J. Tribbia,
National Center for Atmospheric Research.
PUBLICATION
A. Fournier, M. A. Taylor, and J. J. Tribbia, “The Spectral
Element Atmosphere Model (SEAM): High-resolution parallel
computation and localized resolution of regional dynamics”
(in preparation).
URL
http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/gds/fournier/ |
