Ocean Modeling Discussion

Dear all,

nfast: Number of barotropic timesteps needed to compute time-averaged barotropic variables centered at time level n+1
ndtfast: Number of barotropic timesteps between each baroclinic timestep.

I am confused with the time-stepping in ROMS.

For example, I set dt = 150s, ndtfast = 30 in ocean.in, so I got dtfast = 5s, and I also got nfast = 42 computed by set_weights.F. In main3d.F, there are 42 barotropic time-steps for each dt, rather than 30 steps. SO my question is that are there 12 time steps(M*-M) double counted for each dt? For the next baroclinic step n+2, the barotropic step starts from m=M or from m=M* on the figure attached?

Could anyone give me a further explain? Thank you very much!

Read this explanation on WikiROMS:
https://www.myroms.org/wiki/Numerical_S ... g_Overview
and the Shchepetkin papers.

_________________
John Wilkin: IMCS Rutgers University
71 Dudley Rd, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8521, USA. ph: 609-630-0559 jwilkin@rutgers.edu

Hi John,

Thank you for your reply.

I read the explanation before but it was complex for me. Now I think I got the main idea roughly:

There are M* barotropic steps for each baroclinic step, and the fast-time averages among these M* steps are transmitted to the baroclinic mode, as well as used as the initial values for barotropic mode during the next baroclinic step.

Nope, there are actually M* barotropic timesteps The reason for it is that the cosine-square shape filter needs to provide time-averaged values of ubar, vbar, and zeta centered at the n+1 baroclinic timestep, which gives us second-order temporal accuracy for time-averaged barotropic motions. You may check routine set_weights.F to see how the time weights are computed. The above diagram is not clear enough.

Hi Hernan,

Thank you very much!

So the time-averaged values of ubar, vbar, and zeta you mentioned above will be used as initial value for the barotropic modes from m=M to m=M+M* during next baroclinic step n+2, right?

If I am wrong, where does the initial value come from during the next baroclinic step n+2?

Again, Nope The governing equations are timestep from n (right-hand-side terms) to n+1 (left-hand-side term: time rate of change). The vertically-integrated equations are integrated with smaller timestep to resolve fast dynamics due to gravity wave phenomena. For 3D total momentum coupling, the ubar, vbar, and zeta need to be time-averaged at n+1. So we need to timestep the vertically integrated equations beyond the time associated with n+1 so the time-averaged quantities are centered exactly at n+1. This is achieved with the cosine-squared filter so we don't need to go all the way to n+2 to achive such average. It is cleaver and efficient Maybe you need read the literature of split-explicit timestepping or find someone at your intitution to explain it to you.