Publication Abstracts

Engwirda 2017

Engwirda, D., 2017: JIGSAW-GEO (1.0): Locally orthogonal staggered unstructured grid generation for general circulation modelling on the sphere. Geosci. Model Dev., 10, 2117-2140, doi:10.5194/gmd-10-2117-2017.

An algorithm for the generation of non-uniform, locally orthogonal staggered unstructured spheroidal grids is described. This technique is designed to generate very high-quality staggered Voronoi-Delaunay meshes appropriate for general circulation modelling on the sphere, including applications to atmospheric simulation, ocean-modelling and numerical weather prediction. Using a recently developed Frontal-Delaunay refinement technique, a method for the construction of high-quality unstructured spheroidal Delaunay triangulations is introduced. A locally orthogonal polygonal grid, derived from the associated Voronoi diagram, is computed as the staggered dual. It is shown that use of the Frontal-Delaunay refinement technique allows for the generation of very high-quality unstructured triangulations, satisfying a priori bounds on element size and shape. Grid quality is further improved through the application of hill-climbing-type optimisation techniques. Overall, the algorithm is shown to produce grids with very high element quality and smooth grading characteristics, while imposing relatively low computational expense. A selection of uniform and non-uniform spheroidal grids appropriate for high-resolution, multi-scale general circulation modelling are presented. These grids are shown to satisfy the geometric constraints associated with contemporary unstructured C-grid-type finite-volume models, including the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS-O). The use of user-defined mesh-spacing functions to generate smoothly graded, non-uniform grids for multi-resolution-type studies is discussed in detail.

Export citation: [ BibTeX ] [ RIS ]

BibTeX Citation

@article{en08000i,
  author={Engwirda, D.},
  title={JIGSAW-GEO (1.0): Locally orthogonal staggered unstructured grid generation for general circulation modelling on the sphere},
  year={2017},
  journal={Geosci. Model Dev.},
  volume={10},
  pages={2117--2140},
  doi={10.5194/gmd-10-2117-2017},
}

[ Close ]

RIS Citation

TY  - JOUR
ID  - en08000i
AU  - Engwirda, D.
PY  - 2017
TI  - JIGSAW-GEO (1.0): Locally orthogonal staggered unstructured grid generation for general circulation modelling on the sphere
JA  - Geosci. Model Dev.
VL  - 10
SP  - 2117
EP  - 2140
DO  - 10.5194/gmd-10-2117-2017
ER  -

[ Close ]

• Return to 2017 Publications

• Return to Publications Homepage