Identification

Title

Rotated versions of the Jablonowski steady-state and baroclinic wave test cases: A dynamical core intercomparison

Abstract

The Jablonowski test case is widely used for debugging and evaluating the numerical characteristics of global dynamical cores that describe the fluid dynamics component of Atmospheric General Circulation Models. The test is defined in terms of a steady-state solution to the equations of motion and an overlaid perturbation that triggers a baroclinically unstable wave. The steady-state initial conditions are zonally symmetric. Therefore, the test case design has the potential to favor models that are built upon regular latitude-longitude or Gaussian grids. Here we suggest rotating the computational grid so that the balanced flow is no longer aligned with the computational grid latitudes. Ideally the simulations should be invariant under rotation of the computational grid. Note that the test case only requires an adjustment of the Coriolis parameter in the model code. The rotated test case has been exercised by six dynamical cores. In addition, two of the models have been tested with different vertical coordinates resulting in a total of eight model variants. The models are built with different computational grids (regular latitude-longitude, cubed-sphere, icosahedral hexagonal/triangular) and use very different numerical schemes. The test case is useful for debugging, assessing the degree of anisotropy in the numerical methods and grids, and evaluating the numerical treatment of the pole points since the rotated test case directs the flow directly over the geographical poles. It thereby challenges the polar treatments like polar filters in some models.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7p26zj2

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2010-12-31T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Copyright Author(s) 2009. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2025-07-17T14:50:37.080169

Metadata language

eng; USA