A scheme using finite-volume method for local horizontal derivatives in spectral model: Hydrostatic case

The Yin-He Global Spectral Model (YHGSM) is a dry-mass conserving hydrostatic global spectral model, relying on spectral transforms to compute horizontal derivatives. We present an extension of YHGSM core named YHGSM-FVM which uses a second-order finite-volume method (FVM) to compute the horizontal derivatives in grid-point space instead of the spectral approach. With this approach, the computational efficiency of the spectral model is improved since part of the spectral transforms is superseded by FVM which only needs local data and the computational demand is lower. More importantly, YHGSM-FVM is still a spectral model solving the Helmholtz equation directly in spectral space with a highly efficient semi-implicit semi-Lagrangian advection scheme. The comparisons between YHGSM-FVM and YHGSM are conducted, and the results show that both models have comparable prediction skill, but YHGSM-FVM outperforms YHGSM in computational efficiency.

Automated summary

YHGSM-FVM is an extension of YHGSM model, which uses the finite-volume method to compute horizontal derivatives in grid-point space, improving computational efficiency. Compared to YHGSM, YHGSM-FVM outperforms in computational efficiency while maintaining comparable prediction skill.