2019/09/03 by Hong Zhang, Zhengyu Liu, Zhang, Hong +5
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #34D20 #65M12 #76R50 #Climate variability and models #Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph) #FOS: Mathematics #FOS: Physical sciences #Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations #Numerical Analysis (math.NA) #Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1909.00916
openalex publication_date 2019/09/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In this paper we analyze the stability of different coupling strategies for multidomain PDEs that arise in general circulation models used in climate simulations. We focus on fully coupled ocean-atmosphere models that are needed to represent and understand the complicated interactions of these two systems, becoming increasingly important in climate change assessment in recent years. Numerical stability issues typically arise because of different time-stepping strategies applied to the coupled PDE system. In particular, the contributing factors include using large time steps, lack of accurate interface flux, and singe-iteration coupling. We investigate the stability of the coupled ocean-atmosphere models for various interface conditions such as the Dirichlet-Neumann condition and the bulk interface condition, which is unique to climate modeling. By analyzing a simplified model, we demonstrate how the parameterization of the bulk condition and other numerical and physical parameters affect the coupling stability.