Toward fully coupled RegCM-ROMS

Atmosphere-Ocean Model:
Preliminary Results
Ufuk Utku Turuncoglu
ICTP (International Center for Theoretical Physics)
Earth System Physics Section

- Outline

Outline
Motivation
Surface Flux Parameterizations in RegCM
RegCM-ROMS Coupled Model Design
Preliminary Results
Caspian Sea
Additional Notes
Simple Benchmarking
Pros & Cons
Future Work

- Motivation (1/2)
Earth System
Includes several sub-components (ATM, OCN, BIO, ICE, LAND etc.)
Each of them has its own complexity
Interaction between these components are also very complex and
include non-linear processes
Each sub-component have different temporal and spatial scales
Each of these components with different and hierarchical
complexities can be merged as an Earth System Models (ESMs)
Facts
Models are getting more complex with the evolution of the computing
resources and old fashioned coupling strategies are not valid anymore
Designing a monolithic ESM model to represent all these subcomponents is not possible
There is no any standardized interface for the models (different
horizontal and vertical grids, variable units, configuration files etc.)
The coupling libraries (i.e. ESMF, OASIS, MCT) and new
technologies (XML, RDF etc.) can help to reduce the complexity
of the models itself and coupling processes between them

- Motivation (2/2)
Atmosphere-Ocean Interaction?
Investigating role of water bodies (ocean, sea and inland waters) over
the regional climate or investigating effects of climate change over
water bodies
Study interaction and feedback mechanisms between atmosphere and
water bodies
The impact of marine aerosol (sea-salt, sea spray etc.) on climate
system and atmospheric chemistry
Validation of the simplified flux algorithms (i.e. Zeng Ocean) created
special for water bodies in the regional climate model or designing
more realistic and lightweight new sub-grid parameterization methods

Motivation
Investigating role of CAS in regional climate by representing
atmosphere-ocean interaction more realistically
More accurate estimation of water budget of the CAS to reconstruct
the historical sea level fluctuations. Representation of evaporation flux
over the sea is very important in this aspect.

- Surface Flux Parameterizations for Water Bodies (1/2)

RegCM 4.1
Options to represent fluxes over ocean and lake
BATS It uses Monin-Obukhov similarity relations.
It has some limitations such as no special treatment of convective
and very stable conditions and constant roughness length
Zeng Ocean (Zeng et al., 1998) Unlike BATS, it describes all
stability conditions. It calculates sensible and latent heat and
momentum fluxes in the air-sea interface.
It allows better representation of air-sea interaction
It uses prescribed sea surface temperature (i.e. OISST) as input.
One-dimensional Lake Model (Hostetler et al., 1993) Heat,
momentum and moisture fluxes are calculated based on lower level
atmospheric conditions. Heat is transferred vertically between lake
model layers by eddy and convective mixing.
It includes simple ice sub-model
No horizontal exchange across the grid points
It may require tuning to get realistic results.

- Surface Flux Parameterizations for Water Bodies (2/2)

RegCM 4.3
In addition of the available parameterizations the new version of
RegCM enables to use three-dimensional regional ocean model
(ROMS) in coupled mode (RegCM+ROMS).
The coupled model may provide better representation of oceans, lakes
and inland waters (If the ROMS model is tuned well).
Supports
It can be used together with Zeng Ocean and one-dimensional Lake
Model.
ESMF online re-gridding capability and conservative type interpolation
is used for flux variables (bilinear type interpolation for others)
Works with ROMS 3.5 tagged version and also ROMS-Ice branch.
Different number of processor can be assigned to each gridded
components (coupler component uses all processors)
Limitations
Coupled code only interacts with BATS not CLM
Current version only supports Gregorian calendar
The ocean model still needs forcing files but RegCM updates them

- Design (1/2)

General structure (1)

Psurf, T2m, Q2m, Rain
Swrad, Lwrad, U10m, V10m

SST

Hice

Ocean / Lake

ATM Surface atmospheric conditions, heat fluxes and rain. The

atmospheric variables is used to calculate fluxes in the ROMS.
OCN SST and Ice Thickness (if the ice model exist). The SST is used
to calculate sensible heat flux, evaporation, ground temperature etc. Ice
Thickness is used to change land type and updates the evaporation flux
over ice
The interaction or coupling time step (in second) can be defined using
RegCM namelist file

- Design (2/2)

General structure (2)

Gridded Components (RegCM and ROMS) + Coupler Component

- Results (1/X)

Caspian Sea
Importance of Caspian Sea
It locates in a very sensitive climate region (extreme weather cond.)
It is the major source of oil and natural gas
Large fishing industry (90% of the Worlds caviar)
Facts
The Caspian Sea Level (CSL) has fluctuated dramatically in the past.
The CSL changes also have great importance over costal areas and it
causes to change in the coastline and flooding of these regions
It is possible that future changes in global and regional climates might
produce large changes in the Caspian Sea characteristics
Needs
To study hydrodynamic properties (i.e. main circulation and thermal
structure) of the Caspian Sea
To understand feedback mechanism and complex interaction between
sea and regional climate

- Results (2/X)

Test Configuration
Tests - 1995-1997 (first year is spin-up)
ATM-STD RegCM
ATM-LAK RegCM and 1D-Lake Model
ATM-CPL RegCM and ROMS (online coupling) DTCPL = 3 hour
OCN-STD ROMS (forced by ATM-STD results, offline coupling)
RegCM
Initial and Boundary Conditions for RegCM: ERA-Interim
Resolution: 50 km (18 sigma layers)
Parameterizations: Grell, Zeng Ocean, BATS
ROMS (with ICE Model)
Initial Condition for ROMS: monthly T,S climatology (Ibrayev et al.,
2001) and started from rest (no motion).
Resolution: 10 km (32 sigma layers)
Parametrizations: GLS Mixing, Wet-Dry, river runoff

- Results (3/X)
River discharge
points (climatological daily data)

Model Grids

ocean model
domain

ETOPO1 is used for ocean model bathymetry and smoothing is applied to

prevent PGE. The minimum depth of sea is set to 5 m.

- Results (4/X)

Sea Surface Temperature

The observational
datasets are GRSST,
ARCLAKE and CLIM
(CTD measurements)
Coupled model little bit
warmer than
standalone mode of
ROMS (OCN-STD)
MAM sea surface
temperature in NCAS is
improved in the coupled
simulation.
The main spatial
pattern is preserved in
both simulation
(ATM.STD & ATM.CPL)

- Results (4/X)

Sea Surface Temperature

OCN-CPL
OCN-STD

The GHRSST data is used as observation

In both cases correlations are around 0.98 for all sub regions (NCAS,
CCAS, SCAS)
The coupled model warmer than standalone model but it improves the
results especially in the MAM but not in SON

- Results (5/X)

Sea Surface Salinity

Go to animation

Spatial pattern is very similar in both

run (OCN-STD, OCN-CPL).
The salinity is underestimated in the
NCAS when it is compared with
available observational dataset
It is possible that the OBS has
problem in the NCAS. Because the
salinity values are consistent with
other studies and observations.

- Results (6/X)

Ice Coverage
The observational
dataset is ARCLAKE
which covers
1996-2009 period but
the model results for
1996-1997.
In DJF, ROMS seems
underestimate the ice
coverage in the NCAS.
The positive bias in
OCN-STD does not
appear in OCN-CPL
simulation in MAM. The
results are more
realistic than the
standalone run.
JJA also looks better in
coupled model results.

- Results (7/X)

Evaporation (1)
The observational
dataset is
OAFLUX which
relatively low
resolution 1 deg.
The evaporation
response are
quite different in
each ATM model
case.
The OCN-STD
has larger
evaporation bias
in SON and DJF
than OCN-CPL in
other seasons
they are very
similar

- Results (8/X)

Evaporation (2)

Monthly evaporation over CAS

ATM-LAK (CC: 0.73) and OCN-STD runs overestimates the evaporation
ATM-STD (0.92) run generally has negative bias
The coupled simulation (ATM-CPL, 0.96) are the closest to the OAFLUX

- Results (9/X)

Surface Temperature

ATM-LAK
ATM.CPL
ATM-STD -ATM.LAK

- Results (9/X)

Precipitation

ATM-LAK
ATM.CPL
ATM-STD ATM.LAK

- Additional Notes (1/2)

Benchmarking
Basic Performance Estimation for Test Case
(DTCPL = 3h, DTOCN=300s, DTATM=150s)
ATM-STD: 8.5 month/hour (32 CPU)
OCN-STD: 4.5 month/hour (28 CPU)
ATM-CPL: 3 month/hour (32+28 = 60 CPU)
Extra Overhead for Coupling
The ocean model %23 slower then standalone mode
The atmosphere model %65 slower than standalone mode
The coupled model performs interpolation between grids and data
exchange each 3 hours. The overhead is combination of computing
and data transfer.
Possible Ways to Increase Performance
Increasing coupling time step
Load balance between modeling components. Increase OCN CPU !!!
Extensive benchmarking is needed !!!

- Additional Notes (2/2)

Pros & Cons

Pros
The version of ocean component (ROMS) can be changed easily by
porting patch (it may also requires minor change in the RegCM
component code). This is tested before is tested before, 3.4 3.5
3.5_ice.
The coupled model provides better representation of oceans, lakes
and inland waters (If the ROMS model is tuned well).
New components (like CLM) can be added by modifying coupler
interface.
Cons
It needs experience also in ocean modeling, which the configuration of
realistic application is not straightforward (create ocean model grid,
initial, boundary and forcing files).
Adds additional computational and messaging overhead into the model
User needs to tune the ocean model like atmospheric model. This
must be done in standalone mode first !!!

- Future Plans

More work
Support for identical mesh/grid.
No need to interpolation between grid.
The possible candidate to test this configuration is the BAND
version of the RegCM.
The tool to create ROMS grid from RegCM domain file is almost
ready. It is written in NCL.
Add support for boundary smoothing. It is important for the ocean or
sea centric applications (i.e. Mediterranean Sea, Indian Ocean).
Add support for selective interpolation types for each variable. User
can change from conservative type re-gridding to bilinear or others.
Improve interface of air-sea interaction. In the current implementation,
ocean send SST and ICE thickness to atmospheric model. The aerosol
related variables, surface roughness etc. can be added into list.
Benchmarking is needed to see the actual performance of the model. It
also helps to find possible performance bottleneck sources of the
current implementation.
Test case for additional domains such as Mediterranean Sea.

 The coupled model tutorial is on Wednesday

afternoon (14:00-18:00).
Come and learn the details and usage.
It is good time to learn basics of the ROMS ocean
model as well !!!
The paper about coupled model and the preliminary
results for Caspian Sea is on the way.