Global to coastal multiscale modeling in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM)

Phillip J. Wolfram Jr1, Steven R Brus1, Mark R Petersen2, Zhendong Cao1, Darren Engwirda3, Mathew E Maltrud2, Xylar Asay-Davis4, Andrew Roberts5, Jon Wolfe2, Tian Zhou6, Gautam Bisht7, Zeli Tan6 and L. Ruby Leung6, (1)Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States, (2)Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, United States, (3)Los Alamos National Laboratory, New York City, United States, (4)Los Alamos National Laboratory, Fluid Dynamics and Solid Mechanics Group, Los Alamos, United States, (5)Los Alamos National Laboratory, Theoretical Division, Los Alamos, NM, United States, (6)Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, United States, (7)Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, United States
Abstract:
Existing Earth System Model coastal modeling approaches typically neglect an explicit, continuous representation of coastal processes that seamlessly transfer from global to coastal scales. The consequences of this historical design decision is that coupled processes at the terrestrial aquatic interface are unable to be directly represented in terms of interacting, coupled processes. Use of unstructured meshes in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) provides an unparalleled capability to resolve the terrestrial aquatic interface, leveraging new Model for Prediction Across Scales Ocean (MPAS-O) flooding capabilities and improved representation of the land-river-ocean interface via dynamic coupling with the E3SM Land Model (ELM) and the Model for Scale Adaptive River Transport (MOSART). Use of a single unified multiscale mesh across the land-river-ocean interface will enable seamless coastal modeling and cross-shore exchanges will be enabled by this scale-consistent coupling to facilitate transport of sediment, nutrients, and salinity fluxes across the entire coastal zone. We present initial results towards development of this broad E3SM coastal capability, focusing on coastal inundation, biogeochemistry, and land-river-ocean estuarine exchanges at high climate model resolution scales.
Back to: Coastal Processes and Climate Change: Scientific Methods and Tools to Characterize the Impacts of Changing Coastal and Nearshore Processes I