MPAS‐Ocean Simulation Quality for Variable‐Resolution North American Coastal Meshes
Abstract Climate model components utilizing unstructured meshes enable variable resolution, regionally enhanced simulations within global domains. Here we investigate the relationship between mesh quality and simulation statistics using the JIGSAW unstructured meshing library and the Model for Predi...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:36949e2fc7964b569c513181271103a1 2023-05-15T18:25:42+02:00 MPAS‐Ocean Simulation Quality for Variable‐Resolution North American Coastal Meshes Kristin E. Hoch Mark R. Petersen Steven R. Brus Darren Engwirda Andrew F. Roberts Kevin L. Rosa Phillip J. Wolfram 2020-03-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001848 https://doaj.org/article/36949e2fc7964b569c513181271103a1 EN eng American Geophysical Union (AGU) https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001848 https://doaj.org/toc/1942-2466 1942-2466 doi:10.1029/2019MS001848 https://doaj.org/article/36949e2fc7964b569c513181271103a1 Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol 12, Iss 3, Pp n/a-n/a (2020) ocean modeling mesh variable resolution MPAS‐Ocean mesh quality Gulf Stream Physical geography GB3-5030 Oceanography GC1-1581 article 2020 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001848 2023-01-08T01:33:22Z Abstract Climate model components utilizing unstructured meshes enable variable resolution, regionally enhanced simulations within global domains. Here we investigate the relationship between mesh quality and simulation statistics using the JIGSAW unstructured meshing library and the Model for Prediction Across Scales‐Ocean (MPAS‐Ocean) with a focus on Gulf Stream dynamics. In the base configuration, the refined region employs 8 km cells that extend 400 km from the coast of North America. This coastal‐refined region is embedded within a low‐resolution global domain, with cell size varying latitudinally between 30 and 60 km. The resolution transition region between the refined region and background mesh is 600 km wide. Three sensitivity tests are conducted: (a) The quality of meshes is intentionally degraded so that horizontal cells are progressively more distorted; (b) the transition region from high to low resolution is steepened; and (c) resolution of the coastal refinement region is varied from 30 to 8 km. Overall, the ocean simulations are shown to be robust to mesh resolution and quality alterations. Meshes that are substantially degraded still produce realistic currents, with Southern Ocean transports within 0.4% and Gulf Stream transports within 12% of high‐quality mesh results. The narrowest transition case of 100 km did not produce any spurious effects. Refined regions with high‐resolution produce eddy kinetic energy and sea surface height variability that are similar to the high‐resolution reference simulation. These results provide heuristics for the design criteria of variable‐resolution climate model domains. Article in Journal/Newspaper Southern Ocean Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Southern Ocean Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems 12 3 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
ocean modeling mesh variable resolution MPAS‐Ocean mesh quality Gulf Stream Physical geography GB3-5030 Oceanography GC1-1581 |
spellingShingle |
ocean modeling mesh variable resolution MPAS‐Ocean mesh quality Gulf Stream Physical geography GB3-5030 Oceanography GC1-1581 Kristin E. Hoch Mark R. Petersen Steven R. Brus Darren Engwirda Andrew F. Roberts Kevin L. Rosa Phillip J. Wolfram MPAS‐Ocean Simulation Quality for Variable‐Resolution North American Coastal Meshes |
topic_facet |
ocean modeling mesh variable resolution MPAS‐Ocean mesh quality Gulf Stream Physical geography GB3-5030 Oceanography GC1-1581 |
description |
Abstract Climate model components utilizing unstructured meshes enable variable resolution, regionally enhanced simulations within global domains. Here we investigate the relationship between mesh quality and simulation statistics using the JIGSAW unstructured meshing library and the Model for Prediction Across Scales‐Ocean (MPAS‐Ocean) with a focus on Gulf Stream dynamics. In the base configuration, the refined region employs 8 km cells that extend 400 km from the coast of North America. This coastal‐refined region is embedded within a low‐resolution global domain, with cell size varying latitudinally between 30 and 60 km. The resolution transition region between the refined region and background mesh is 600 km wide. Three sensitivity tests are conducted: (a) The quality of meshes is intentionally degraded so that horizontal cells are progressively more distorted; (b) the transition region from high to low resolution is steepened; and (c) resolution of the coastal refinement region is varied from 30 to 8 km. Overall, the ocean simulations are shown to be robust to mesh resolution and quality alterations. Meshes that are substantially degraded still produce realistic currents, with Southern Ocean transports within 0.4% and Gulf Stream transports within 12% of high‐quality mesh results. The narrowest transition case of 100 km did not produce any spurious effects. Refined regions with high‐resolution produce eddy kinetic energy and sea surface height variability that are similar to the high‐resolution reference simulation. These results provide heuristics for the design criteria of variable‐resolution climate model domains. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kristin E. Hoch Mark R. Petersen Steven R. Brus Darren Engwirda Andrew F. Roberts Kevin L. Rosa Phillip J. Wolfram |
author_facet |
Kristin E. Hoch Mark R. Petersen Steven R. Brus Darren Engwirda Andrew F. Roberts Kevin L. Rosa Phillip J. Wolfram |
author_sort |
Kristin E. Hoch |
title |
MPAS‐Ocean Simulation Quality for Variable‐Resolution North American Coastal Meshes |
title_short |
MPAS‐Ocean Simulation Quality for Variable‐Resolution North American Coastal Meshes |
title_full |
MPAS‐Ocean Simulation Quality for Variable‐Resolution North American Coastal Meshes |
title_fullStr |
MPAS‐Ocean Simulation Quality for Variable‐Resolution North American Coastal Meshes |
title_full_unstemmed |
MPAS‐Ocean Simulation Quality for Variable‐Resolution North American Coastal Meshes |
title_sort |
mpas‐ocean simulation quality for variable‐resolution north american coastal meshes |
publisher |
American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001848 https://doaj.org/article/36949e2fc7964b569c513181271103a1 |
geographic |
Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean |
genre |
Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Southern Ocean |
op_source |
Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol 12, Iss 3, Pp n/a-n/a (2020) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001848 https://doaj.org/toc/1942-2466 1942-2466 doi:10.1029/2019MS001848 https://doaj.org/article/36949e2fc7964b569c513181271103a1 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001848 |
container_title |
Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
3 |
_version_ |
1766207303009173504 |