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High Performance Computing in Science and Engineering ‘14 pp 593–607Cite as

Direct Numerical Simulation of Breaking Atmospheric Gravity Waves

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Abstract

We present the results of fully resolved direct numerical simulations of monochromatic gravity waves breaking in the middle atmosphere. The simulations are initialized with optimal perurbations of the gives waves. Given a wavelength of 3 km, the required grid sizes range up to 3.6 billion computational cells, depending on the necessary domain size and the turbulence intensity. Our results provide an insight into the mechanics of gravity wave breaking they will be of great value for the validation of lower order methods for the prediction of wave breaking.

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Acknowledgements

U. A. and S. H. thank Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG) for partial support through the MetStröm (Multiple Scales in Fluid Mechanics and Meteorology) Priority Research Program (SPP 1276), and through Grants HI 1273/1-2 and Ac71/4-2. Computational resources were provided by the HLRS Stuttgart under the grants TIGRA and DINSGRAW and by the CSC Frankfurt.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics, Technische Universität München, 85747 Garching bei, Müchen, Germany

    Sebastian Remmler & Stefan Hickel

  2. Institute for Atmosphere and Environment, Goethe-University Frankfurt, 60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Mark D. Fruman & Ulrich Achatz

Authors
  1. Sebastian Remmler
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  2. Stefan Hickel
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  3. Mark D. Fruman
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  4. Ulrich Achatz
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stefan Hickel .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Zentrum für Informationsdienste und Hochleistungsrechnen (ZIH), Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Wolfgang E. Nagel

  2. Abteilung für Angewandte Mathematik, Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Dietmar H. Kröner

  3. HöchstleistungsrechenzentrumStuttgart (HLRS), Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

    Michael M. Resch

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Remmler, S., Hickel, S., Fruman, M.D., Achatz, U. (2015). Direct Numerical Simulation of Breaking Atmospheric Gravity Waves. In: Nagel, W., Kröner, D., Resch, M. (eds) High Performance Computing in Science and Engineering ‘14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10810-0_39

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