Coupling GCCOM, a Curvilinear Ocean Model Rigid Lid Simulation with SWASH for Analysis of Free Surface Conditions

Abstract

The oceans effect is predominant of Earth systems. From weather and food supplies to shipping routes, the oceans impact everyone, which makes the numerical modeling of ocean phenomenon incredibly important. With as many different ways the ocean impacts the Earth, there are just as many models describing its behavior. Since there are such different physical parameters in each problem, and with many different techniques available, no single ocean model can do everything in a computationally efficient way. Deep water models may not able to capture surface conditions or violent interactions accurately, while shallow water models usually lack the sophistication to render slow processes impacted by temperature, pressure, and salinity. Coupling is often used to combine the best features of different models to better resolve complex interactions, that each model alone would be unable to solve fully. Presented here is a coupling between a non-hydrostatic, rigid lid model, the General Curvilinear Coastal Ocean Model (GCCOM) a hydrostatic free surface model, the Shallow Water At Shore model (SWASH), interfacing by using the Distributed Coupling Toolkit (DCT). To test the coupling, a lock release experiment is modeled, to show the detail of internal processes and the surface features from internal waves striking the surface. The coupled system is shown to be faster and scales better than the SWASH model alone running in its non-hydrostatic capacity.