Idealized global nonhydrostatic atmospheric test cases on a reduced-radius sphere

Idealized simulations on a reduced-radius sphere can provide a useful vehicle for evaluating the behavior of nonhydrostatic processes in nonhydrostatic global atmospheric dynamical cores provided the simulated cases exhibit good agreement with corresponding flows in a Cartesian geometry, and for which there are known solutions. Idealized test cases on a reduced-radius sphere are presented here that focus on both dry and moist dynamics.

The dry dynamics cases are variations of mountain-wave simulations designed for the Dynamical Core Model Intercomparison Project (DCMIP), and permit quantitative comparisons with linear analytic mountain-wave solutions in a Cartesian geometry. To evaluate moist dynamics, an idealized supercell thunderstorm is simulated that has strong correspondence to results obtained on a flat plane, and which can be numerically converged by specifying a constant physical diffusion.