Cubed sphere

The cubed sphere is a short name for "the conformal expanded spherical cube". It is a new approach for gridding the sphere; a problem as ancient as geography. The cubed sphere offers a relatively uniform coverage (number of grid points per area) without requiring a fundamental change in the form of the model, written for conventional geographic coordinates (latitude-longitude). 

Finite Volume Topography

During my thesis we developed the concept of using finite volumes to discretize the governing equations for the ocean. Previously, finite differencing was used to discretize the equations governing ocean dynamics. The FV method has many advantages of which one is a more natural representation of the irregular sea-floor.

Vertical Coordinates

We are currently investigating alternate approaches for representing the vertical axis of the model. The model currently supports either height or pressure as the vertical coordinate. We have developed variants on the "eta" coordinate that will allow us to model shallow regimes and solve non-hydrostatic equations as efficiently as if they were in height coordinates.

Advection

We have put a lot of work into investigating finite volume methods for transport problems in the ocean. There is no single universally perfect scheme but the model now offers a range of schemes that can be chosen appropriately.