High-resolution and ultra-high resolution modeling in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) (Invited Presentation)

Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) project aims to optimize the use of DOE resources to address the grand challenge of actionable predictions of earth system variability and change. This requires sustained effort to integrate model development with leading-edge computational advances. To advance this goal, E3SM v1 includes a high-resolution configuration coupling the atmosphere and land models at 0.25^o grid spacing with ocean and sea ice models at grid spacing varying between 6 – 18 km. Comparison of high-resolution simulations with the low-resolution counterpart at 1^o grid spacing for the atmosphere shows some improvements, particularly for extreme events. Ongoing efforts towards ultra-high resolution modeling include the development of a global storm-resolving model with global 3 km grid spacing and a super-parameterized version of the model with an embedded cloud resolving model inside each atmosphere grid cell. Our science goals for the ultra-high resolution models, computational strategies, and early results will be discussed.