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A global non-hydrostatic dynamical core using the spectral element method on a cubed-sphere grid

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Abstract

A new global model with a non-hydrostatic (NH) dynamical core is developed. It employs the spectral element method (SEM) in the horizontal discretization and the finite difference method (FDM) in the vertical discretization. The solver includes a time-split third-order Runge-Kutta (RK3) time-integration technique. Pursuing the quasi-uniform and pole singularity-free spherical geometry, a cubed-sphere grid is employed. To assess the performance of the developed dynamical solver, the results from a number of idealized benchmark tests for hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic flows are presented and compared. The results indicate that the non-hydrostatic dynamical solver is able to produce solutions with good accuracy and consistency comparable to reference solutions. Further evaluation of the model with a full-physics package demonstrates its capability in reproducing heavy rainfall over the Korean Peninsula, which confirms that coupling of the dynamical solver and full-physics package is robust.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Korea Institute of Atmospheric Prediction Systems, Seoul, Korea

    Suk-Jin Choi & Song-You Hong

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  1. Suk-Jin Choi
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  2. Song-You Hong
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Correspondence to Suk-Jin Choi.

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Choi, SJ., Hong, SY. A global non-hydrostatic dynamical core using the spectral element method on a cubed-sphere grid. Asia-Pacific J Atmos Sci 52, 291–307 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13143-016-0005-0

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