arXiv subjects

Kieran Ricardo

Publications and source records attributed to Kieran Ricardo.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Data driven non-equilibrium moist phase exchanges for atmospheric convection within a discontinuous Galerkin model of the compressible Euler equations

A discrete formulation of the multiphase moist compressible Euler equations is presented for which the energy and tracer variance conserving dynamics is coupled to the non-equilibrium moist phase exchanges in a thermodynamically consistent manner. A neural network is then trained to learn the mass exchanges between vapour, liquid and ice phases in atmospheric convection. The network is trained on convection resolving output from a regional configuration of the LFRic model with a multi-moment microphysics parameterisation (CASIM). The loss function for learning these phase exchanges is formulated under the assumptions of thermal and mechanical equilibrium (same temperature and pressure for all phases), and chemical dis-equilibrium (different Gibbs free energies for all phases). The network outputs determine the exchanges of vapour, liquid and ice so as to conserve mass, and the resulting change in entropy is determined from the network outputs so as to conserve energy. The neural network is implemented in a thermodynamically consistent manner within the discontinuous Galerkin moist compressible Euler model in order to simulate the formation of three-phase clouds for convection at sub-km resolution. The results are compared to those from a physics based representation of three-phase moist processes at thermodynamic equilibrium, as well as to an idealised configuration of LFRic model.

math.NA↗

arXiv2026

High order tracer variance stable transport with low order energy conserving dynamics for the thermal shallow water equations

A high order discontinuous Galerkin method for the material transport of thermodynamic tracers is coupled to a low order mixed finite element solver in the context of the thermal shallow water equations. The coupling preserves the energy conserving structure of the low order dynamics solver, while the high order material transport scheme is provably tracer variance conserving, or damping with the inclusion of upwinding. The two methods are coupled via a nested hierarchy of meshes, with the low order mesh of the dynamics solver being embedded within the high order transport mesh, for which the basis functions are collocated at the Gauss-Legendre quadrature points. Standard test cases are presented to verify the consistency and conservation properties of the method. While the overall scheme is limited by the formal order of accuracy of the low order dynamics, the use of high order, tracer variance conserving transport is shown to preserve richer turbulent solutions without compromising model stability compared to a purely low order method.

math.NA↗

arXiv2025

Scalable ADER-DG Transport Method with Polynomial Order Independent CFL Limit

Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods are known to suffer from increasingly restrictive explicit time-step constraints as the polynomial order increases, limiting their efficiency at high orders for explicit time-stepping schemes. In this paper, we introduce a novel \emph{locally implicit}, but \emph{globally explicit} ADER-DG scheme designed for transport-dominated problems. The method achieves a maximum stable time step governed by an element-width based CFL condition that is independent of the polynomial degree. By solving a set of element-local implicit problems at each time step, our approach more effectively utilises the domain of dependence. As a result, our method remains stable for CFL numbers up to $\approx 1/\sqrt{d}$ in $d$ spatial dimensions. We provide a rigorous stability proof in one dimension, and extend the analysis to two and three dimensions using a semi-analytical von Neumann stability analysis. The accuracy and convergence of the method are demonstrated through numerical experiments for both linear and nonlinear test cases, including numerical simulations of a transport problem on a cubed sphere 2D manifold embedded in 3D.

math.NA↗

arXiv2024

Thermodynamic consistency and structure-preservation in summation by parts methods for the moist compressible Euler equations

Moist thermodynamics is a fundamental driver of atmospheric dynamics across all scales, making accurate modeling of these processes essential for reliable weather forecasts and climate change projections. However, atmospheric models often make a variety of inconsistent approximations in representing moist thermodynamics. These inconsistencies can introduce spurious sources and sinks of energy, potentially compromising the integrity of the models. Here, we present a thermodynamically consistent and structure preserving formulation of the moist compressible Euler equations. When discretised with a summation by parts method, our spatial discretisation conserves: mass, water, entropy, and energy. These properties are achieved by discretising a skew symmetric form of the moist compressible Euler equations, using entropy as a prognostic variable, and the summation-by-parts property of discrete derivative operators. Additionally, we derive a discontinuous Galerkin spectral element method with energy and tracer variance stable numerical fluxes, and experimentally verify our theoretical results through numerical simulations.

physics.ao-ph↗

arXiv2024

Strongly stable dual-pairing summation by parts finite difference schemes for the vector invariant nonlinear shallow water equations -- I: Numerical scheme and validation on the plane

We present an energy/entropy stable and high order accurate finite difference (FD) method for solving the nonlinear (rotating) shallow water equations (SWEs) in vector invariant form using the newly developed dual-pairing and dispersion-relation preserving summation by parts (SBP) FD operators. We derive new well-posed boundary conditions (BCs) for the SWE in one space dimension, formulated in terms of fluxes and applicable to linear and nonlinear SWEs. For the nonlinear vector invariant SWE in the subcritical regime, where energy is an entropy functional, we find that energy/entropy stability ensures the boundedness of numerical solution but does not guarantee convergence. Adequate amount of numerical dissipation is necessary to control high frequency errors which could negatively impact accuracy in the numerical simulations. Using the dual-pairing SBP framework, we derive high order accurate and nonlinear hyper-viscosity operator which dissipates entropy and enstrophy. The hyper-viscosity operator effectively minimises oscillations from shocks and discontinuities, and eliminates high frequency grid-scale errors. The numerical method is most suitable for the simulations of subcritical flows typically observed in atmospheric and geostrophic flow problems. We prove both nonlinear and local linear stability results, as well as a priori error estimates for the semi-discrete approximations of both linear and nonlinear SWEs. Convergence, accuracy, and well-balanced properties are verified via the method of manufactured solutions and canonical test problems such as the dam break and lake at rest. Numerical simulations in two-dimensions are presented which include the rotating and merging vortex problem and barotropic shear instability, with fully developed turbulence.

math.NA↗

arXiv2024

Helmholtz preconditioning for the compressible Euler equations using mixed finite elements with Lorenz staggering

Implicit solvers for atmospheric models are often accelerated via the solution of a preconditioned system. For block preconditioners this typically involves the factorisation of the (approximate) Jacobian resulting from linearization of the coupled system into a Helmholtz equation for some function of the pressure. Here we present a preconditioner for the compressible Euler equations with a flux form representation of the potential temperature on the Lorenz grid using mixed finite elements. This formulation allows for spatial discretisations that conserve both energy and potential temperature variance. By introducing the dry thermodynamic entropy as an auxiliary variable for the solution of the algebraic system, the resulting preconditioner is shown to have a similar block structure to an existing preconditioner for the material form transport of potential temperature on the Charney-Phillips grid. This new formulation is also shown to be more efficient and stable than both the material form transport of potential temperature on the Charney-Phillips grid, and a previous Helmholtz preconditioner for the flux form transport of density weighted potential temperature on the Lorenz grid for a 1D thermal bubble configuration. The new preconditioner is further verified against standard two dimensional test cases in a vertical slice geometry.

math.NA↗

arXiv2024

Conservation and stability in a discontinuous Galerkin method for the vector invariant spherical shallow water equations

We develop a novel and efficient discontinuous Galerkin spectral element method (DG-SEM) for the spherical rotating shallow water equations in vector invariant form. We prove that the DG-SEM is energy stable, and discretely conserves mass, vorticity, and linear geostrophic balance on general curvlinear meshes. These theoretical results are possible due to our novel entropy stable numerical DG fluxes for the shallow water equations in vector invariant form. We experimentally verify these results on a cubed sphere mesh. Additionally, we show that our method is robust, that is can be run stably without any dissipation. The entropy stable fluxes are sufficient to control the grid scale noise generated by geostrophic turbulence without the need for artificial stabilisation.

math.NA↗

arXiv2024

An entropy stable discontinuous Galerkin method for the spherical thermal shallow water equations

We present a novel discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for numerical simulations of the rotating thermal shallow water equations in complex geometries using curvilinear meshes, with arbitrary accuracy. We derive an entropy functional which is convex, and which must be preserved in order to preserve model stability at the discrete level. The numerical method is provably entropy stable and conserves mass, buoyancy, vorticity, and energy. This is achieved by using novel entropy stable numerical fluxes, summation-by-parts principle, and splitting the pressure and convection operators so that we can circumvent the use of chain rule at the discrete level. Numerical simulations on a cubed sphere mesh are presented to verify the theoretical results. The numerical experiments demonstrate the robustness of the method for a regime of well developed turbulence, where it can be run stably without any dissipation. The entropy stable fluxes are sufficient to control the grid scale noise generated by geostrophic turbulence, eliminating the need for artificial stabilisation.

math.NA↗

arXiv2023

Entropy and energy conservation for thermal atmospheric dynamics using mixed compatible finite elements

Atmospheric systems incorporating thermal dynamics must be stable with respect to both energy and entropy. While energy conservation can be enforced via the preservation of the skew-symmetric structure of the Hamiltonian form of the equations of motion, entropy conservation is typically derived as an additional invariant of the Hamiltonian system, and satisfied via the exact preservation of the chain rule. This is particularly challenging since the function spaces used to represent the thermodynamic variables in compatible finite element discretisations are typically discontinuous at element boundaries. In the present work we negate this problem by constructing our equations of motion via weighted averages of skew-symmetric formulations using both flux form and material form advection of thermodynamic variables, which allow for the necessary cancellations required to conserve entropy without the chain rule. We show that such formulations allow for stable simulations of both the thermal shallow water and 3D compressible Euler equations on the sphere using mixed compatible finite elements without entropy damping.

math.NA↗