Non-Hydrostatic Modeling of General Ocean Circulation with First Order System Least Squares Finite Element Methods
Jose Garcia
NCAR - High Altitude Observatory
Date and time:
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 - 3:45pm
Abstract:
The dynamics of ocean circulation are generally well described by the Navier-Stokes equations in a rotational frame of reference. Due to the complexity of such formulation, numerical models such as the Parallel Ocean Model (POP), or the Spectral Element Ocean Model (SEOM), assume a series of hypotheses such as the Boussinesq approximation and hydrostatic balance. These example models offer the current production codes for climate models, dynamics of coastal regions, etc., and although mature and well tested, they have some drawbacks with regard to high performance computing, numerical stability and/or the possibility of offering a-posteriori error estimators for potential mesh refinement. In this work, we first present the characteristics of POP and SEOM and then we discuss the potential of the First Order System Least Squares (FOSLS) to address the issues present in existing models as well as the challenges to utilize FOSLS as a robust numerical solution to the dynamics of the ocean circulation.