arXiv subjects

C. J. Cotter

Publications and source records attributed to C. J. Cotter.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2009

A family of mixed finite element pairs with optimal geostrophic balance

We introduce a family of mixed finite element pairs for use on geodesic grids and with adaptive mesh refinement for numerical weather prediction and ocean modelling. We prove that when these finite element pairs are applied to the linear rotating shallow water equations, the geostrophically balanced states are exactly steady, which means that the numerical schemes do not introduce any spurious inertia-gravity waves; this makes these finite element pairs in some sense optimal for numerical weather prediction and ocean modelling applications. We further prove that these finite element pairs satisfy an inf-sup condition which means that they are free of spurious pressure modes which would pollute the numerical solution over the timescales required for large-scale geophysical applications. We then discuss the extension to incompressible Euler-Boussinesq equations with rotation, and show that for the linearised equations the balanced states are again exactly steady on arbitrary unstructured meshes. We also show that the discrete pressure Poisson equation resulting from these discretisations satisfies an optimal stencil property. All these properties make the discretisations in this family excellent candidates for numerical weather prediction and large-scale ocean modelling applications when unstructured grids are required.

math.NA↗

arXiv2009

Estimating eddy diffusivities from noisy Lagrangian observations

The problem of estimating the eddy diffusivity from Lagrangian observations in the presence of measurement error is studied in this paper. We consider a class of incompressible velocity fields for which is can be rigorously proved that the small scale dynamics can be parameterised in terms of an eddy diffusivity tensor. We show, by means of analysis and numerical experiments, that subsampling of the data is necessary for the accurate estimation of the eddy diffusivity. The optimal sampling rate depends on the detailed properties of the velocity field. Furthermore, we show that averaging over the data only marginally reduces the bias of the estimator due to the multiscale structure of the problem, but that it does significantly reduce the effect of observation error.

math-ph↗

arXiv2009

Continuous and discrete Clebsch variational principles

The Clebsch method provides a unifying approach for deriving variational principles for continuous and discrete dynamical systems where elements of a vector space are used to control dynamics on the cotangent bundle of a Lie group \emph{via} a velocity map. This paper proves a reduction theorem which states that the canonical variables on the Lie group can be eliminated, if and only if the velocity map is a Lie algebra action, thereby producing the Euler-Poincaré (EP) equation for the vector space variables. In this case, the map from the canonical variables on the Lie group to the vector space is the standard momentum map defined using the diamond operator. We apply the Clebsch method in examples of the rotating rigid body and the incompressible Euler equations. Along the way, we explain how singular solutions of the EP equation for the diffeomorphism group (EPDiff) arise as momentum maps in the Clebsch approach. In the case of finite dimensional Lie groups, the Clebsch variational principle is discretised to produce a variational integrator for the dynamical system. We obtain a discrete map from which the variables on the cotangent bundle of a Lie group may be eliminated to produce a discrete EP equation for elements of the vector space. We give an integrator for the rotating rigid body as an example. We also briefly discuss how to discretise infinite-dimensional Clebsch systems, so as to produce conservative numerical methods for fluid dynamics.

math.DS↗

arXiv2009

A mixed discontinuous/continuous finite element pair for shallow-water ocean modelling

We introduce a mixed discontinuous/continuous finite element pair for ocean modelling, with continuous quadratic pressure/layer depth and discontinuous velocity. We investigate the finite element pair applied to the linear shallow-water equations on an f-plane. The element pair has the property that all geostrophically balanced states which strongly satisfy the boundary conditions have discrete divergence equal to exactly zero and hence are exactly steady states of the discretised equations. This means that the finite element pair has excellent geostrophic balance properties. We illustrate these properties using numerical tests and provide convergence calculations which show that the discretisation has quadratic errors, indicating that the element pair is stable.

math.NA↗

arXiv2007

Diagnostic tools for 3D unstructured oceanographic data

Most ocean models in current use are built upon structured meshes. It follows that most existing tools for extracting diagnostic quantities (volume and surface integrals, for example) from ocean model output are constructed using techniques and software tools which assume structured meshes. The greater complexity inherent in unstructured meshes (especially fully unstructured grids which are unstructured in the vertical as well as the horizontal direction) has left some oceanographers, accustomed to traditional methods, unclear on how to calculate diagnostics on these meshes. In this paper we show that tools for extracting diagnostic data from the new generation of unstructured ocean models can be constructed with relative ease using open source software. Higher level languages such as Python, in conjunction with packages such as NumPy, SciPy, VTK and MayaVi, provide many of the high-level primitives needed to perform 3D visualisation and evaluate diagnostic quantities, e.g. density fluxes. We demonstrate this in the particular case of calculating flux of vector fields through isosurfaces, using flow data obtained from the unstructured mesh finite element ocean code ICOM, however this tool can be applied to model output from any unstructured grid ocean code.

physics.ao-ph↗

arXiv2007

LBB Stability of a Mixed Discontinuous/Continuous Galerkin Finite Element Pair

We introduce a new mixed discontinuous/continuous Galerkin finite element for solving the 2- and 3-dimensional wave equations and equations of incompressible flow. The element, which we refer to as P1dg-P2, uses discontinuous piecewise linear functions for velocity and continuous piecewise quadratic functions for pressure. The aim of introducing the mixed formulation is to produce a new flexible element choice for triangular and tetrahedral meshes which satisfies the LBB stability condition and hence has no spurious zero-energy modes. We illustrate this property with numerical integrations of the wave equation in two dimensions, an analysis of the resultant discrete Laplace operator in two and three dimensions, and a normal mode analysis of the semi-discrete wave equation in one dimension.

math.NA↗

arXiv2007

Multisymplectic formulation of fluid dynamics using the inverse map

We construct multisymplectic formulations of fluid dynamics using the inverse of the Lagrangian path map. This inverse map -- the ``back-to-labels'' map -- gives the initial Lagrangian label of the fluid particle that currently occupies each Eulerian position. Explicitly enforcing the condition that the fluid particles carry their labels with the flow in Hamilton's principle leads to our multisymplectic formulation. We use the multisymplectic one-form to obtain conservation laws for energy, momentum and an infinite set of conservation laws arising from the particle-relabelling symmetry and leading to Kelvin's circulation theorem. We discuss how multisymplectic numerical integrators naturally arise in this approach.

math.DS↗