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Oceanography in 2025 Proceedings of a Workshop (2009) / Chapter Skim
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Towards Nonhydrostatic Ocean Modeling with Large-eddy Simulation--Oliver B. Fringer
Pages 81-83

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From page 81...
... In general, a coarser grid leads to a faster prediction, but at the expense of resolving less physics and placing more emphasis on the underlying parameterizations of unresolved processes. Most ocean models require parameterizations of unresolved physics and are known as unsteady Reynoldsaveraged (URANS)
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From page 82...
... . While some ocean models incorporate LES-style parameterizations for horizontal turbulent fluxes, there are no ocean models based strictly on the LES formulation for turbulent fluxes in all three directions, since all models possess some form of a RANS-type parameterization for the unresolved vertical turbulent fluxes, particularly at solid boundaries and at the free surface.
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From page 83...
... Even with this grid resolution, however, turbulent fluxes at the free surface and bottom boundaries will still need to be parameterized using URANS-type parameterizations. Because advances in computer power by 2025 will likely not lead to a regional scale LES-type ocean modeling capability, and beyond that time it is not clear whether computing power will continue to increase at a rate that justifies implementation of LES-type ocean models, the ocean modeling community will need to focus more on model nesting and coupling, whereby higher grid resolution is achieved via nesting of progressively finer grids within a simulation, and the grids are coupled to one another via transfer of information at the boundaries or within the individual grids.
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Key Terms

  • ocean models
  • turbulent fluxes
  • ocean modeling
  • models incorporate
  • urans models

  • grid cells
  • computer performance
  • hydrostatic urans
  • computing resources
  • regional scale

  • free surface
  • les models
  • computer power
  • nonhydrostatic urans
  • solid boundaries

  • justifies implementation
  • unresolved vertical
  • models possess
  • hurricane tracks
  • type models

  • urans parameterizations
  • using unstructured
  • resolution associated
  • based strictly
  • parallel computing

  • coupled ocean
  • scale hydrostatic
  • les reverts
  • computing indicate
  • requirements associated


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