Workflow environment for Earth System Simulations and Model Development

Abstract

Comprehensive Earth System Models (ESMs) for the simulation of the terrestrial climate system are continuously further developed to include increasingly detailed descriptions of an increasing number of processes in various domains of the climate system. These models belong to the most demanding scientific tools concerning the computational effort. Due to the increasing complexity and the vast amount of output data, the adequate testing and evaluation of further developments becomes a more and more challenging and time consuming task on its own. In particular, our Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy, www.messyinterface.org), a modular approach towards a comprehensive ESM, is still growing considerably and several extensions are being developed, among others the dynamical and chemical coupling of an atmosphereocean system, the online nesting of a regional atmospheric model, the representation of isotopic signatures in atmospheric constituents, and a Lagrangian representation of atmospheric tracer transport. Another recently started development focuses on extending the model atmosphere from the troposphere/stratosphere/lower mesosphere up to the thermosphere to study in particular solar effects on the terrestrial atmospheric chemistry and climate. All ongoing developments require an extensive testing, optimisation and evaluation of the model system to be applicable for specific scientific demands. The infrastructure provided by DEISA provides an ideal environment to develop a comfortable workflow management for an efficient model evaluation, further development and optimisation, including preprocessing, compilation, simulation, postprocessing and visualisation.