Sept. 15 — Dr. Masaki Satoh, an internationally recognized expert in atmospheric science and professor at the University of Tokyo’s Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, will be an invited speaker at SC16. Satoh will speak on “A Super High-Resolution Global Atmospheric Simulation by the Non-Hydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model.”
Satoh developed the Non-Hydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM) with Dr. Hirofumi Tomita and leads projects with NICAM using Japan’s K computer. Satoh’s book “Atmospheric Circulation Dynamics and General Circulation Models” is widely respected.
Short Introduction
Non-Hydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM) enables us to perform an 870 m mesh global super high-resolution atmospheric simulation which resolves deep convective updraft cores. All the atmospheric cloud disturbances from sub-kilometer to the planetary scales are realistically reproduced. We aim to further enhance the resolution to O (100 m) or less, toward a global large-eddy simulation model by using near future supercomputers.
Full Abstract
In the field of the atmospheric science, general circulation models (GCMs) have been used to simulate global atmospheric circulations both for numerical weather forecasts and climate change projections. GCMs use discretized equations for fluids and integrate them for winds, temperature, and humidity. GCMs are also coupled with ocean, land surface, and eco-system models to construct Earth system models. Until very recently, horizontal resolution of GCMs is around several tens of kilometers. As computer powers increase, resolutions of GCMs become higher and more complicated processes are introduced.
Our research team has developed a new type of the global atmospheric model called NICAM which covers the Earth with a quasi-uniform mesh, whose horizontal interval can be a sub-kilometer (870 m) using the K computer. With this model, fine structures of global cloud distributions are reproduced well and can be viewed as a global cloud resolving model (GCRM). The target of GCRM is multi-scale and multi-physics atmospheric phenomena whose scales are from a sub-kilometer to several ten-thousand kilometers with interactive processes of cloud microphysics, radiation, and turbulence.
This presentation overviews recent results from the super-high resolution simulations with NICAM using the K computer and outlooks the post K era toward new horizon simulations such as global large-scale eddies (global-LES) simulations.
About the Speaker
Satoh earned his Ph.D. in Geophysics at the University of Tokyo in 1993 and also became a lecturer of Saitama Institute of Technology. In 1998, he was a senior visiting scholar at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Cambridge University. Later, Satoh joined the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology when the development of NICAM first started and still contributes there today. In 2005, he moved to Center for Climate System Research at the University of Tokyo. Since 2011, he has served as professor at AORI and as a senior research scientist at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Satoh is a director of the Meteorological Society of Japan, a member of the American Meteorological Society, and chief editor of “Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan” and section chief editor of “Progress in Earth and Planetary Science”. Recently, he was elected as a delegate of the Japan Geoscience Union.
Source: SC16