Unstructured global to coastal wave modeling for the Energy Exascale Earth System Model using WAVEWATCH III version 6.07

<p>Wind-wave processes have generally been excluded from coupled Earth system models due to the high computational expense of spectral wave models, which resolve a frequency and direction spectrum of waves across space and time. Existing uniform-resolution wave modeling approaches used in Eart...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: S. R. Brus, P. J. Wolfram, L. P. Van Roekel, J. D. Meixner
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2021-05-01
Series:Geoscientific Model Development
Online Access:https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/14/2917/2021/gmd-14-2917-2021.pdf
Description
Summary:<p>Wind-wave processes have generally been excluded from coupled Earth system models due to the high computational expense of spectral wave models, which resolve a frequency and direction spectrum of waves across space and time. Existing uniform-resolution wave modeling approaches used in Earth system models cannot appropriately represent wave climates from global to coastal ocean scales, largely because of tradeoffs between coastal resolution and computational costs. To resolve this challenge, we introduce a global unstructured mesh capability for the WAVEWATCH III (WW3) model that is suitable for coupling within the US Department of Energy's Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM). The new unstructured WW3 global wave modeling approach can provide the accuracy of higher global resolutions in coastal areas at the relative cost of lower uniform global resolutions. This new capability enables simulation of waves at physically relevant scales as needed for coastal applications.</p>
ISSN:1991-959X
1991-9603