Z-Grid Dynamic Cores on Icosahedral Triangular Grids for Exascale Computing

We are developing next generation global forecast models at the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences. The highest priority of these models is to meet accuracy, conservation, and efficiency requirements of the future operations. One of the models implements a new Z-grid scheme with mathematically-proven second order accuracy at any grid cell and conservation on the sphere. It has also been carefully designed to use triangular grids and takes advantage of future Exascale computing. Icosahedral triangular grid cells make the underlying finite volume scheme homogeneous on all grid cells. The finite volume calculations on all cells are exactly the same except the edge lengths and cell areas, which is ideal for future Exascale computing architecture. This presentation discusses some algorithms and data structures of this Z-grid model for implementing the new Z-grid finite-volume scheme as well as some numerical results comparing it to other Z-grid schemes for stability and efficiency.