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This paper analyzes synoptic-scale trough-thinning processes using a filamentation time diagnostic. The filamentation time diagnostic is derived from the potential vorticity equation expressed in spherical coordinates in the horizontal plane and the isentropic coordinate in the vertical direction. The diagnostic is an accurate measure of stirring processes under the condition of ''slowly varying velocity gradients.'' Troughthinning processes are analyzed for one tropical example and two midlatitude examples. The results indicate that the filamentation time for the tropical trough-thinning event is generally longer than those for the midlatitude trough events. In addition to the effects of stretching and shearing deformation, the filamentation time diagnostic contains the effects of divergence. For the calculation of filamentation time on isentropic surfaces in spherical coordinates, it is acceptable to ignore the curvature effects in the tropics; however, in both the midlatitudes and the tropics, isentropic divergence effects should be retained for improved accuracy. Combining an analysis of cross potential vorticity contour flows on isentropic surfaces with the filamentation time analysis gives a more complete description of the dynamics. The results show that the filamentation time diagnostic can serve as a useful aid in the analysis and prediction of trough thinning and cutoff-low formation.

We have investigated the accuracy of the semi-implicit semi-Lagrangian (SISL) method in simulating internal gravity wave (IGW) motion. We have focused on the relative accuracy of the hydrostatic, and nonhydrostatic IGW solutions. The analysis is based on a linearized model and a Global Circulation Model-Dynamic Core (GCM-DC) with a stretched grid.The nonhydrostatic version of the GCM-DC model produces the familiar IGW train disturbance anchored to an isolated hypothetical mountain. The wave has a distinct tilt away from the vertical direction, which is consistent with classical theory. For the hydrostatic version of the model, the axis of the resulting IGW train rests nearly perpendicular to the mountain top, thus again consistent with classical theory. Increasing the time step from 10 s; Courant number ðCnÞ ¼ 0:5; to 60 s ðCn ¼ 3:0Þ, results in stable solutions for both the hydrostatic and nonhydrostatic versions of the model. The nonhydrostatic solution is in close agreement with the control run however, the hydrostatic solution exhibits large phase truncation errors.The solutions for the one-dimensional linearized SISL model confirm the GCM-DC results that the nonhydrostatic IGW train is less damped and shifted by the SISL scheme than the corresponding hydrostatic IGW motion. The linear solutions indicate very high accuracy of the physical mode of the solution, but it rapidly deteriorates when Cn exceeds unity. As Dt ! 0 the amplitude of the computational mode tends to zero and its frequency to infinity. However, as Dt ! y, the frequency of the computational SISL mode asymptotically approaches the value of the frequency of the corresponding SISL physical mode. Furthermore, the amplitude of the SISL computational mode is directly proportional to the size of the time step. Therefore, at large time steps, the amplification of the computational mode could offset some of the numerical damping of the physical mode by the SISL scheme.

Spectral methods seek the solution to a differential equation in terms of series of known smooth function. The Chebyshev series possesses the exponential-convergence property regardless of the imposed boundary condition, and therefore is suited for the regional modeling. We propose a new domain-decomposed Chebyshev collocation method which facilitates an efficient parallel implementation. The boundary conditions for the individual sub-domains are exchanged through one grid interval overlapping. This approach is validated using the one dimensional advection equation and the inviscid Burgers' equation. We further tested the vortex formation and propagation problems using two-dimensional nonlinear shallow water equations. The domain decomposition approach in general gave more accurate solutions compared to that of the single domain calculation. Moreover, our approach retains the exponential error convergence and conservation of mass and the quadratic quantities such as kinetic energy and enstrophy. The efficiency of our method is greater than one and increases with the number of processors, with the optimal speed up of 29 and efficiency 3.7 in 8 processors. Efficiency greater than one was obtained due to the reduction the degrees of freedom in each sub-domain that reduces the spectral operational count and also due to a larger time step allowed in the sub-domain method. The communication overhead begins to dominate when the number of processors further increases, but the method still results in an efficiency of 0.9 in 16 processors. As a result, the parallel domain-decomposition Chebyshev method may serve as an efficient alternative for atmospheric and oceanic modeling.

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