Research Article

MPDATA and grid adaptivity in geophysical fluid flow models

  1. J. M. Prusa1,*,
  2. W. J. Gutowski2

Article first published online: 28 DEC 2005

DOI: 10.1002/fld.1152

Issue

International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids

International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids

Special Issue: Multidimensional Positive Definite Advection Transport Algorithm Methods

Volume 50, Issue 10, pages 1207–1228, 10 April 2006

Additional Information

How to Cite

Prusa, J. M. and Gutowski, W. J. (2006), MPDATA and grid adaptivity in geophysical fluid flow models. Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids, 50: 1207–1228. doi: 10.1002/fld.1152

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, U.S.A.

  2. 2

    Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, U.S.A.

*Teraflux Corporation, Boca Raton, FL, 33486, U.S.A.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 10 MAR 2006
  2. Article first published online: 28 DEC 2005
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 7 NOV 2005
  4. Manuscript Revised: 3 OCT 2005
  5. Manuscript Received: 30 MAR 2005

Funded by

  • U.S. Department of Energy. Grant Numbers: DEFG0296ER61473, DEFG0201ER63250
  • U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research
  • U.S. National Science Foundation

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Keywords:

  • MPDATA;
  • grid adaptivity;
  • continuous mappings;
  • geophysical flows

Abstract

Geophysical flows can profoundly affect human activities. Often characterized by an astonishing range of significant scales and a rich assortment of physical processes, the complexity of such flows generally precludes all but numerical simulation for prediction and understanding—yet even state of the art computational models may be severely challenged by problems such as hurricane intensification. Although a number of significant issues are involved, a major factor is often grid resolution, for which grid adaptivity (GA) can be useful. Our experience has been that MPDATA is particularly well suited for GA. This paper sketches general details of a model that blends MPDATA with continuous GA; highlights a tensor viewpoint of the geometric conservation law; and presents results for both global and regional atmospheric applications. Together, the examples demonstrate the advantages of using GA with MPDATA to resolve fine-scale features—explicit gravity waves generated by flow over orography. Resolution of these waves (or lack thereof) are shown to affect global climate; furthermore, wave resolution is shown to depend upon the regional atmospheric environment. Finally the regional simulations show a surprising increase in the complexity of the wavefields as resolution is increased to the point of resolving nonhydrostatic effects. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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