Managing complexity in simulations of land surface and near-surface processes

Journal Article · Tue Jan 12 04:00:00 UTC 2016 · Environmental Modelling and Software

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2015.12.017 · OSTI ID:1261343

Coon, Ethan T. ^[1]; Moulton, J. David ^[1]; Painter, Scott L. ^[2]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Increasing computing power and the growing role of simulation in Earth systems science have led to an increase in the number and complexity of processes in modern simulators. We present a multiphysics framework that specifies interfaces for coupled processes and automates weak and strong coupling strategies to manage this complexity. Process management is enabled by viewing the system of equations as a tree, where individual equations are associated with leaf nodes and coupling strategies with internal nodes. A dynamically generated dependency graph connects a variable to its dependencies, streamlining and automating model evaluation, easing model development, and ensuring models are modular and flexible. Additionally, the dependency graph is used to ensure that data requirements are consistent between all processes in a given simulation. Here we discuss the design and implementation of these concepts within the Arcos framework, and demonstrate their use for verification testing and hypothesis evaluation in numerical experiments.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1261343
• Journal Information: Environmental Modelling and Software, Journal Name: Environmental Modelling and Software Vol. 78; ISSN 1364-8152
• Publisher: ElsevierCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English