Abstract
In this paper we present software engineering aspects of a parallel atmospheric General Circulation Model (GCM) currently nearing completion at the NASA Data Assimilation Office. The code is scientifically closely related to the current Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS 2.x) GCM. The new software design, however, is a radical departure from the previous Fortran 77 code, using Fortran 90 derived data types and modules to compartmentalize the implementation.
In order to reduce turnaround time needed to facilitate scientific development, the GEOS 3.x implementation uses a message-passing paradigm. This allows the performance to scale consistently to a large number of processors on both an Origin 2000 and a Cray T3E. The Message-Passing Interface (MPI) is used for portability.
The modularity and performance of the parallel GEOS 3.x code allow faster development of scientific improvements such as variable resolution grids and a new land surface model which are key to keeping the GCM competitive with other leading models.
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Keywords
- Atmospheric General Circulation Model
- Land Surface Model
- Reduce Turnaround Time
- NASA Code
- Derive Data Type
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Sawyer, W., Takacs, L., Molod, A., Lucchesi, R. (1999). Modular Fortran 90 Implementation of a Parallel Atmospheric General Circulation Model. In: Amestoy, P., et al. Euro-Par’99 Parallel Processing. Euro-Par 1999. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1685. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48311-X_197
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48311-X_197
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