Towards a Modeling Environment for Earth Systems Simulations

Gross, L., Davies, M., Gerschwitz, J. C., Muhlhaus, H. B. and Hornby, P. (2004). Towards a Modeling Environment for Earth Systems Simulations. In: 2004 Western Pacific Geophysics Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii, (). 16-20 August 2004.


Author Gross, L.
Davies, M.
Gerschwitz, J. C.
Muhlhaus, H. B.
Hornby, P.
Title of paper Towards a Modeling Environment for Earth Systems Simulations
Conference Paper Type Fully Published Paper
Conference name 2004 Western Pacific Geophysics Meeting
Conference location Honolulu, Hawaii
Conference dates 16-20 August 2004
Convener American Geophysical Union
Place published Washing, DC, USA
Publisher American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Publication date 2004
Collection year 2004
Language eng
Abstract/Summary The developments of models in Earth Sciences, e.g. for earthquake prediction and for the simulation of mantel convection, are fare from being finalized. Therefore there is a need for a modelling environment that allows scientist to implement and test new models in an easy but flexible way. After been verified, the models should be easy to apply within its scope, typically by setting input parameters through a GUI or web services. It should be possible to link certain parameters to external data sources, such as databases and other simulation codes. Moreover, as typically large-scale meshes have to be used to achieve appropriate resolutions, the computational efficiency of the underlying numerical methods is important. Conceptional this leads to a software system with three major layers: the application layer, the mathematical layer, and the numerical algorithm layer. The latter is implemented as a C/C++ library to solve a basic, computational intensive linear problem, such as a linear partial differential equation. The mathematical layer allows the model developer to define his model and to implement high level solution algorithms (e.g. Newton-Raphson scheme, Crank-Nicholson scheme) or choose these algorithms form an algorithm library. The kernels of the model are generic, typically linear, solvers provided through the numerical algorithm layer. Finally, to provide an easy-to-use application environment, a web interface is (semi-automatically) built to edit the XML input file for the modelling code. In the talk, we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this concept in more details. We will also present the modelling environment escript which is a prototype implementation toward such a software system in Python (see www.python.org). Key components of escript are the Data class and the PDE class. Objects of the Data class allow generating, holding, accessing, and manipulating data, in such a way that the actual, in the particular context best, representation is transparent to the user. They are also the key to establish connections with external data sources. PDE class objects are describing (linear) partial differential equation objects to be solved by a numerical library. The current implementation of escript has been linked to the finite element code Finley to solve general linear partial differential equations. We will give a few simple examples which will illustrate the usage escript. Moreover, we show the usage of escript together with Finley for the modelling of interacting fault systems and for the simulation of mantel convection.
Subjects E4
260206 Earthquake Seismology
780104 Earth sciences
080204 Mathematical Software
Q-Index Code E4
Additional Notes (Book of Abstracts, Conference Issue Only) In: Eos Trans. AGU, 85(28), West. Pac. Geophys. Meet. Suppl., Abstract xxxxx-xx

Document type: Conference Paper
Sub-type: Fully Published Paper
Collections: Excellence in Research Australia (ERA) - Collection
Earth Systems Science Computational Centre Publications
 
Versions
Version Filter Type
Citation counts: Google Scholar Search Google Scholar
Access Statistics: 37 Abstract Views  -  Detailed Statistics
Created: Mon, 27 Aug 2007, 12:58:16 EST