Application of the Yin‐Yang grid to a thermal convection of a Boussinesq fluid with infinite Prandtl number in a three‐dimensional spherical shell

Abstract

A new numerical finite difference code has been developed to solve a thermal convection of a Boussinesq fluid with infinite Prandtl number in a three‐dimensional spherical shell. A kind of the overset (Chimera) grid named “Yin‐Yang grid” is used for the spatial discretization. The grid naturally avoids the pole problems which are inevitable in the latitude‐longitude grids. The code is applied to numerical simulations of mantle convection with uniform and variable viscosity. The validity of the Yin‐Yang grid for the mantle convection simulation is confirmed.