[MITgcm-support] help me get started solving Boussinesq equations

[Lucas Merckelbach]

Hi Jeff,

> Now, I need to setup my particular problem.  Given an initial 
> temperature and salinity state in a 2D spatial domain, I would like to 
> use MITgcm to solve the Boussinesq equations through time, using 
> periodic boundary conditions.  Eventually I would like to extend this to 
> 3D.
>
> So, to start, I'm wondering which of the canned examples supplied with 
> MITgcm would be a good place for me to start tweaking?

I would probably start with a very simple experiment, the baroclinic gyre 
for example (epx0 or so?) And then changing step by step some features of 
that experiment to something you want to solve. For instance, you wouldn't 
need a prescription of the wind shear stress, but you want a temperature 
field. You then typically would like to change that in the "data" file (to 
make MITgcm read in a temperature field) and generate an appropriate 
temperature field file. With each experiment there are scripts supplied 
that generate the input data for that particular experiment. If you 
understand what these do then it is relatively straight forward to apply 
the script to generate a temp. field rather then a wind shear stress 
field. Pay attention to the big endian and little endian issues. (depends 
on your hardware and compiler settings)

As long as you don't put in some walls at the boundaries (by specifying 
them in the bathymetry) then the boundary conditions are considered cyclic 
by default.

Hope this helps.

Lucas