New Zealand Simulation

This page describes a numerical simulation over New Zealand further extending the top of the domain from the study New Zealand Zones.

Computational Domain

The computation grid shown below uses horizonal mesh spacings of 500 m in a uniform region near the surface. The vertical grid uses uniform spacing of 500 m to an altitude of 140 km. Stretching of ~2% is used past the uniform regions to the edge of the domain in each direction. The horizontal mesh is coarsened by a factor of 2 at four interfaces of altitudes 140, 200, 260, 320 km.

Coarse Grid Comparison

A coarser grid with x-y spacing of 4km and 1km vertical in the unitform regions is used for comparison. Only a single interface is used such that the grid spacing at the top of the domain is the same as the full simulation.

surface
The location of the x-z plane animation is noted above.

Wind Profiles

Winds profiles and time varyiation displayed for data point located at 45.5°S, 170°E. This maps to (-11.2,-210.8) km in grid space, slightly SSE of Lauder (-36.8,-160.9).

winds

direction

direction

temperature

R

R

R

gamma

Forcing

A hyperbolic tangent forcing function gradually introduces winds near the surface with the objective of achieving the wind profile within a two hour period.

The following animations start at the end of the ramping period.

Simulation Results Followed by Coarse Domain

Results in xz planes


y = -250 km





y = -150 km





y = -120 km





Results in xy planes


z = 90 km





z = 250 km





z = 320 km





Stability Index at 13:00 UTC


y = -150 km


temperature

z = 80 km


temperature