Development of BFMCOUPLER (v1.0), the coupling scheme that links the MITgcm and BFM models for ocean biogeochemistry simulations
2016
In this paper, we present a coupling scheme between the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model (MITgcm) and
the Biogeochemical Flux Model (BFM). The MITgcm and BFM are widely used
models for geophysical fluid dynamics and for ocean biogeochemistry,
respectively, and they benefit from the support of active developers and user
communities. The MITgcm is a state-of-the-art general circulation model for
simulating the ocean and the atmosphere. This model is fully 3-D (including
the non-hydrostatic term of momentum equations) and is characterized by a
finite-volume discretization and a number of additional features enabling
simulations from global (O(107) m) to local scales (O(100) m). The BFM
is a biogeochemical model based on plankton functional type formulations, and
it simulates the cycling of a number of constituents and nutrients within
marine ecosystems. The online coupling presented in this paper is based on an
open-source code, and it is characterized by a modular structure. Modularity
preserves the potentials of the two models, allowing for a sustainable
programming effort to handle future evolutions in the two codes. We also
tested specific model options and integration schemes to balance the
numerical accuracy against the computational performance. The coupling scheme
allows us to solve several processes that are not considered by each of the
models alone, including light attenuation parameterizations along the water
column, phytoplankton and detritus sinking, external inputs, and surface and
bottom fluxes. Moreover, this new coupled hydrodynamic–biogeochemical model
has been configured and tested against an idealized problem (a cyclonic gyre
in a mid-latitude closed basin) and a realistic case study (central part of
the Mediterranean Sea in 2006–2012). The numerical results consistently
reproduce the interplay of hydrodynamics and biogeochemistry in both the
idealized case and Mediterranean Sea experiments. The former reproduces
correctly the alternation of surface bloom and deep chlorophyll maximum
dynamics driven by the seasonal cycle of winter vertical mixing and summer
stratification; the latter simulates the main basin-wide and mesoscale
spatial features of the physical and biochemical variables in the
Mediterranean, thus demonstrating the applicability of the new coupled model
to a wide range of ocean biogeochemistry problems.
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