A high-order finite-volume method for atmospheric flows on unstructured grids

Abstract

This paper presents an extension of a Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory (WENO) type schemes for the compressible Euler equations on unstructured meshes for stratified atmospheric flows. The schemes could be extended for regional and global climate models dynamical cores. Their potential lies in their simplicity; accuracy; robustness; non-oscillatory properties; versatility in handling any type of grid topology; computational and parallel efficiency. Their defining characteristic is a non-linear combination of a series of high-order reconstruction polynomials arising from a series of reconstruction stencils. In the present study an explicit Strong Stability Preserving (SSP) Runge-Kutta 3rd-order method is employed for time advancement. The WENO schemes (up to 5th-order) are applied to the two dimensional and three dimensional test cases: a 2D rising thermal bubble; the 2D density current and the 3D Robert smooth bubble. The parallel performance of the schemes in terms of scalability and efficiency is also assessed.