The Finite Element Sea Ice-Ocean Model (FESOM) v.1.4: formulation of an ocean general circulation model

Wang, Qiang; Danilov, Sergey; Sidorenko, Dmitry; Timmermann, Ralph; Wekerle, Claudia; Wang, Xuezhu; Jung, Thomas; Schröter, Jens

doi:10.5194/gmd-7-663-2014

Cited by 245 publications

(269 citation statements)

References 226 publications

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“…In this study we use model output from the Finite-Element Sea-ice Ocean Model (FESOM) version 1.4 (Wang et al, 2014;Danilov et al, 2015). FESOM is an ocean-sea ice model which solves the hydrostatic primitive equations in the Boussinesq approximation.…”

Section: Numerical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does the East Greenland Current exist in northern Fram Strait?

Richter¹,

Appen²,

Wekerle³

2018

Preprint

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Section: Numerical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does the East Greenland Current exist in northern Fram Strait?

Richter¹,

Appen²,

Wekerle³

2018

Preprint

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“…Historically, there has been a substantially computational penalty, e.g. the finite element model FESOM1.4 was reported to be ∼ 10 times slower than comparable structured grid models (Wang et al, 2014) and experience with the FV-COM in the northwest European shelf suggest this model is ∼ 5 times slower than NEMO. More recent work suggests a very different picture: MPAS quotes a penalty of 3.4 compared with POP (Ringler et al, 2013) and the finite volume FESOM2 code reports a through-put 5 times faster than FESOM1.4.…”

Section: Scalability and Efficiency Of Ocean Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…FVCOM (Chen et al, 2003); FESOM2 or a finite element approach, e.g. FESOM1.4 (Wang et al, 2014), SELFE (Zhang and Baptista, 2008) and SCHISM (Zhang et al, 2016). In contrast, MPAS (Ringler et al, 2013) is based on hexagonal meshes using a finite volume approach.…”

Section: Options For Multiscale Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospects for improving the representation of coastal and shelf seas in global ocean models

et al. 2017

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Abstract. Accurately representing coastal and shelf seas in global ocean models represents one of the grand challenges of Earth system science. They are regions of immense societal importance through the goods and services they provide, hazards they pose and their role in global-scale processes and cycles, e.g. carbon fluxes and dense water formation. However, they are poorly represented in the current generation of global ocean models. In this contribution, we aim to briefly characterise the problem, and then to identify the important physical processes, and their scales, needed to address this issue in the context of the options available to resolve these scales globally and the evolving computational landscape.We find barotropic and topographic scales are well resolved by the current state-of-the-art model resolutions, e.g. nominal 1/12 • , and still reasonably well resolved at 1/4 • ; here, the focus is on process representation. We identify tides, vertical coordinates, river inflows and mixing schemes as four areas where modelling approaches can readily be transferred from regional to global modelling with substantial benefit. In terms of finer-scale processes, we find that a 1/12 • global model resolves the first baroclinic Rossby radius for only ∼ 8 % of regions < 500 m deep, but this increases to ∼ 70 % for a 1/72 • model, so resolving scales globally requires substantially finer resolution than the current state of the art.We quantify the benefit of improved resolution and process representation using 1/12 • global-and basin-scale northern North Atlantic nucleus for a European model of the ocean (NEMO) simulations; the latter includes tides and a k-ε vertical mixing scheme. These are compared with global stratification observations and 19 models from CMIP5. In terms of correlation and basin-wide rms error, the high-resolution models outperform all these CMIP5 models. The model with tides shows improved seasonal cycles compared to the highresolution model without tides. The benefits of resolution are particularly apparent in eastern boundary upwelling zones.To explore the balance between the size of a globally refined model and that of multiscale modelling options (e.g. finite element, finite volume or a two-way nesting approach), we consider a simple scale analysis and a conceptual grid refining approach. We put this analysis in the context of evolving computer systems, discussing model turnaround time, scalability and resource costs. Using a simple cost model compared to a reference configuration (taken to be a 1/4 • global model in 2011) and the increasing performance of the UK Research Councils' computer facility, we estimate an unstructured mesh multiscale approach, resolving process scales down to 1.5 km, would use a comparable share of the computer resource by 2021, the two-way nested multiscale approach by 2022, and a 1/72 • global model by 2026. However, we also note that a 1/12 • global model would not have a comparable computational cost to a 1 • global model in 2017 until 2027. Hence, we conc...

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“…A range of new general circulation models, including the Finite Element Sea Ice-Ocean Model (FESOM) (Wang et al, 2014), the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM) (Chen et al, 2003(Chen et al, , 2007Lai et al, 2010), the Stanford Unstructured Non-hydrostatic Terrain-following Adaptive NavierStokes Simulator (SUNTANS) (Fringer et al, 2006;Vitousek and Fringer, 2014), and the Second-generation Louvainla-Neuve Ice-ocean Model (SLIM) (Bernard et al, 2007;Comblen et al, 2009), are based on semi-structured triangular grids, with the horizontal directions discretised according to an unstructured spherical triangulation, and the ver-D. Engwirda: Unstructured grid-generation for general circulation modelling 2119 tical direction represented as a stack of locally structured layers. The Model for Predication Across Scales (MPAS) (Skamarock et al, 2012;Ringler et al, 2013Ringler et al, , 2008) adopts a similar arrangement, except that a locally orthogonal unstructured discretisation is adopted, consisting of both a Spherical Voronoi Tessellation (SVT) and its dual Delaunay triangulation.…”

Section: Unstructured Gridsmentioning

confidence: 99%

JIGSAW-GEO (1.0): locally orthogonal staggered unstructured grid generation for general circulation modelling on the sphere

Engwirda

2017

Geosci. Model Dev.

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Abstract. An algorithm for the generation of non-uniform, locally orthogonal staggered unstructured spheroidal grids is described. This technique is designed to generate very high-quality staggered Voronoi-Delaunay meshes appropriate for general circulation modelling on the sphere, including applications to atmospheric simulation, ocean-modelling and numerical weather prediction. Using a recently developed Frontal-Delaunay refinement technique, a method for the construction of high-quality unstructured spheroidal Delaunay triangulations is introduced. A locally orthogonal polygonal grid, derived from the associated Voronoi diagram, is computed as the staggered dual. It is shown that use of the Frontal-Delaunay refinement technique allows for the generation of very high-quality unstructured triangulations, satisfying a priori bounds on element size and shape. Grid quality is further improved through the application of hill-climbing-type optimisation techniques. Overall, the algorithm is shown to produce grids with very high element quality and smooth grading characteristics, while imposing relatively low computational expense. A selection of uniform and non-uniform spheroidal grids appropriate for highresolution, multi-scale general circulation modelling are presented. These grids are shown to satisfy the geometric constraints associated with contemporary unstructured C-gridtype finite-volume models, including the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS-O). The use of user-defined meshspacing functions to generate smoothly graded, non-uniform grids for multi-resolution-type studies is discussed in detail.

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The Finite Element Sea Ice-Ocean Model (FESOM) v.1.4: formulation of an ocean general circulation model

Cited by 245 publications

References 226 publications

Does the East Greenland Current exist in northern Fram Strait?

Does the East Greenland Current exist in northern Fram Strait?

Prospects for improving the representation of coastal and shelf seas in global ocean models

JIGSAW-GEO (1.0): locally orthogonal staggered unstructured grid generation for general circulation modelling on the sphere

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