High-Performance Computing with the Weather Research and Forecasting System Model: A Case Study under Stable Conditions over Mexico Basin

Authors

  • Lourdes P. Aquino-Martinez Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
  • Beatriz Ortega Guerrero Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
  • Arturo I. Quintanar Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
  • Carlos A. Ochoa Moya Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
  • Ricardo Barrón-Fernández Instituto Politécnico Nacional

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13053/cys-27-3-4035

Keywords:

Numerical weather prediction, WRF model, performance, parallel programming

Abstract

This study explores the performance of the Weather Research and Forecasting System Model (WRF v.4.0) for a winter case under stable meteorological conditions in the Mexico Basin. To evaluate the sensitivity to spatial resolution and parameterization configurations, a suite of different numerical experiments is designed to test five Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) schemes coupled to a Surface Layer parameterization (SL) and a cloud microphysics (MP) parameterization to find an optimal configuration in terms of closeness to physical reality and computational efficiency. The WRF atmospheric dynamics core and its ancillary physics routines constitute a massively parallel FORTRAN code that runs on the Tlaloc cluster at the ICAyCC-UNAM with optimized MPICH software. Two model performance metrics are used: 1) Taylor statistics to measure the distance between simulations and observed meteorological fields (near-surface and upper-level temperature and winds), and 2) CPU execution time. Results show that the Mellor-Yamada-Janjic (M) scheme performs best near the surface at 2.0 km horizontal resolution. However, the Yonsei University (Y) PBL scheme outperforms the M scheme when looking at temperature vertical profiles at the exact horizontal resolution. Both PBL schemes show negligible CPU execution time differences.

Author Biographies

Lourdes P. Aquino-Martinez, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Escuela Nacional de Ciencias de la Tierra

Beatriz Ortega Guerrero, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Escuela Nacional de Ciencias de la TIerra

Arturo I. Quintanar, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Instituto de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y Cambio Climático

Carlos A. Ochoa Moya, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Instituto de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y Cambio Climático

Ricardo Barrón-Fernández, Instituto Politécnico Nacional

Centro de Investigación en Computación

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Published

2023-09-25

Issue

Vol. 27 No. 3 (2023): 27(3) 2023

Section

Articles

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