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A contour‐advective semi‐lagrangian numerical algorithm for simulating fine‐scale conservative dynamical fields
Author(s) -
Dritschel David G.,
Ambaum Maarten H. P.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49712354015
Subject(s) - inviscid flow , geostrophic wind , turbulence , advection , vortex , scale (ratio) , flow (mathematics) , algorithm , zonal flow (plasma) , eulerian path , geology , lagrangian , computer science , meteorology , mechanics , physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , tokamak , thermodynamics , plasma
This paper describes a novel numerical algorithm for simulating the evolution of fine‐scale conservative fields in layer‐wise two‐dimensional flows, the most important examples of which are the earth's atmosphere and oceans. the algorithm combines two radically different algorithms, one Lagrangian and the other Eulerian, to achieve an unexpected gain in computational efficiency. The algorithm is demonstrated for multi‐layer quasi‐geostrophic flow, and results are presented for a simulation of a tilted stratospheric polar vortex and of nearly‐inviscid quasi‐geostrophic turbulence. the turbulence results contradict previous arguments and simulation results that have suggested an ultimate two‐dimensional, vertically‐coherent character of the flow. Ongoing extensions of the algorithm to the generally ageostrophic flows characteristic of planetary fluid dynamics are outlined.