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CAM-SE: A scalable spectral element dynamical core for the Community Atmosphere Model.

Journal Article · · International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [5];  [1];  [4];  [3]
  1. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
  2. IBM and National Center for Atmospheric Research
  3. ORNL
  4. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL)
  5. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)
The Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) version 5 includes a spectral element dynamical core option from NCAR's High-Order Method Modeling Environment. It is a continuous Galerkin spectral finite element method designed for fully unstructured quadrilateral meshes. The current configurations in CAM are based on the cubed-sphere grid. The main motivation for including a spectral element dynamical core is to improve the scalability of CAM by allowing quasi-uniform grids for the sphere that do not require polar filters. In addition, the approach provides other state-of-the-art capabilities such as improved conservation properties. Spectral elements are used for the horizontal discretization, while most other aspects of the dynamical core are a hybrid of well tested techniques from CAM's finite volume and global spectral dynamical core options. Here we first give a overview of the spectral element dynamical core as used in CAM. We then give scalability and performance results from CAM running with three different dynamical core options within the Community Earth System Model, using a pre-industrial time-slice configuration. We focus on high resolution simulations of 1/4 degree, 1/8 degree, and T340 spectral truncation.
Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL); Center for Computational Sciences
Sponsoring Organization:
DOE Office of Science; SC USDOE - Office of Science (SC)
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1036556
Journal Information:
International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications, Journal Name: International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 26; ISSN 1094-3420
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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