ATM S 581, Autumn Quarter 1998

Numerical Modeling of Atmospheric Flows

Instructor: Professor Dale Durran
606 Atmospheric Sciences Bldg., 543-7440
durrand@atmos.washington.edu

Lectures: MWF, 2:30 - 3:20, 610ATG

Textbook: Durran, D.R., 1998: Numerical Methods for Wave Equations in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Springer-Verlag. If the book is not in stock at the start of the quarter, xerox copies will be made available.

Purpose of Course:

Gain a thorough understanding of the basic numerical techniques that form the foundation for the computer models commonly used to stimulate atmospheric motions. The course tries to provide perspective on fundamental techniques used in our field; it will not delve into the details of any particular numerical model.

Course Outline:

Introduction

• The difficulty of simulating low-viscosity flow.
• Overview of numerical solution strategies.

Elementary finite-difference methods

• Accuracy, consistency, stability and convergence
• Time differencing.
• Spatial differencing
• The combined effects of time and space differencing.

Series expansion methods

• General properties of series expansion methods
• The spectral method
• The pseudo-spectral method
• Spherical Harmonics

Finite volume methods

• The necessity of conservation form when the solution is discontinous.
• Flux-corrected transport

Semi-Langrangian methods

• Scalar advection
• The shallow-water system

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