Formulation of the NRL Layered Ocean Model in Spherical Coordinates

Abstract

This report describes NRL's hydrodynamic (isopycnal) nonlinear, primitive equation, ocean circulation model in a spherical layer suitable for a large basin or the global domain. This document should be read in conjunction with NOARL Report 35, December 1991, The Navy Layered Ocean Model User's Guide ?25!. Spherical geometry requires careful treatment of the equations of fluid dynamics to ensure spurious terms are not introduced during the layer averaging process, particularly in the momentum diffusion expressions. From these layer averaged equations, finite difference approximations are derived on a grid of uniform intervals in longitude and latitude (not necessarily the same). These equations may be solved efficiently on modern architecture scientific computers, allowing accurate description of ocean flows.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 14, 1998
Accession Number
ADA352773

Entities

People

  • Alan J. Wallcraft
  • Daniel R. Moore

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Boltzmann Equation
  • Cartesian Coordinates
  • Coordinate Systems
  • Difference Equations
  • Differential Equations
  • Equations
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Fluid Flow
  • Geometry
  • Grids
  • Kinetic Energy
  • Latitude
  • Longitude
  • Ocean Currents
  • Stratified Fluids
  • Three Dimensional
  • Two Dimensional

Readers

  • Calculus or Mathematical Analysis
  • Finite Element Method (FEM) for solving Partial Differential Equations (PDEs)
  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers