A New Dynamical Core for the Unified Model: Conservation Properties, Model Grids and Time-Stepping
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Leeds
Department Name: School of Earth and Environment
Abstract
A test-bed for investigating three essential aspects of a new dynamical core for the Unified Model will be established, building on the current NCAS Microscale Model. The features to be investigated are the conservation properties of the equations and their discretisation, the computational grid and the method for advancing the model in time without exciting acoustic modes. The new approaches will be evaluated and compared with existing approaches, paying particular attention to accuracy and speed in massively parallel implementations. A new implementation of the Microscale Model will be based on a re-casting of the model equations in conservative form; this is likely to be of particular importance for climate modelling. Massively parallel implementations of the Microscale Model will be be created with both rectangular and hexagonal horizontal grid structures and the efficiency of these will be evaluated. In addition to the current split-explicit time-stepping version of the model, a second version will be established using a Helmholtz solver for determination of the pressure, allowing much larger time-steps but simultaneously creating challenges for efficient parallel implementation. The outcomes of these evaluations will feed into the design of the next generation Unified Model.
Organisations
Publications
Good B
(2013)
Performance of the cut-cell method of representing orography in idealized simulations
in Atmospheric Science Letters
Lock S
(2014)
Numerical analyses of Runge-Kutta implicit-explicit schemes for horizontally explicit, vertically implicit solutions of atmospheric models
in Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society
Lock S
(2012)
Demonstration of a Cut-Cell Representation of 3D Orography for Studies of Atmospheric Flows over Very Steep Hills
in Monthly Weather Review
Description | This project was a consortia bid to generate a new dynamical core. The work on time-integration processes, as discussed in the publications was interesting new work. |
Exploitation Route | The Leeds work has contribute as one small element into a bigger project, and the whole project has been a success. |
Sectors | Environment |