Consistency Problem with Tracer Advection in the Atmospheric Model GAMIL

The radon transport test, which is a widely used test case for atmospheric transport models, is carried out to evaluate the tracer advection schemes in the Grid-Point Atmospheric Model of IAP-LASG （GAMIL）. Two of the three available schemes in the model are found to be associated with significant bi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Advances in atmospheric sciences 2008-03, Vol.25 (2), p.306-318
Main Author: 张恺 万慧 王斌 张美根
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advection
Atmospheric models
Atmospheric Sciences
Atmospherics
Chemical speciation
Climate change
Computer simulation
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Expenses
General circulation models
Geophysics/Geodesy
Mathematical models
Meteorology
Polar environments
Radon
Tracers
Transport
Transport processes
数字模拟技术
水平对流
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Summary:The radon transport test, which is a widely used test case for atmospheric transport models, is carried out to evaluate the tracer advection schemes in the Grid-Point Atmospheric Model of IAP-LASG （GAMIL）. Two of the three available schemes in the model are found to be associated with significant biases in the polar regions and in the upper part of the atmosphere, which implies potentially large errors in the simulation of ozone-like tracers. Theoretical analyses show that inconsistency exists between the advection schemes and the discrete continuity equation in the dynamical core of GAMIL and consequently leads to spurious sources and sinks in the tracer transport equation. The impact of this type of inconsistency is demonstrated by idealized tests and identified as the cause of the aforementioned biases. Other potential effects of this inconsistency are also discussed. Results of this study provide some hints for choosing suitable advection schemes in the GAMIL model. At least for the polax-region-concentrated atmospheric components and the closely correlated chemical species, the Flux-Form Semi-Lagrangian advection scheme produces more reasonable simulations of the large-scale transport processes without significantly increasing the computational expense.
ISSN:0256-1530
1861-9533
DOI:10.1007/s00376-008-0306-z